Duke of Burgundy


One of nature's aristocrats, the Duke of Burgundy (Hamearis lucina) is an increasingly rare butterfly here in the UK. A little research is needed to find a thriving colony. These photographs, from a site in the Chilterns, show the type of habitat that they prefer - scrubby chalk downland. Nearby are hundreds of cowslip (primula verdis) plants, one of the foodplants for their caterpillars, still in flower.

Newly emerged, these perfect specimens were two of more than twenty to be found enjoying the May sunshine. Although they were basking, the butterflies were still fairly active making short, quick flights, often when disturbed by other butterflies sharing their sunny spot. These included some grizzled and dingy skippers. Once unsettled they flew high up into the air only to return shortly to the same area. Patience and good observation is required as they are quite small and you could easily dismiss them in flight as more dingy skippers.


These pictures were taken on an Olympus E3 camera with a Sigma 105mm macro lens and olympus EC-14 teleconverter (to increase the working distance). Taken at F8.0 and 1/125th exposure. The E3 gives very natural colour straight from the camera.

Comments

PeterD said…
What a beautiful presentation. The images are really good and the narrative very interesting and informative. Thank you for this posting.
PeterD
18 May 2008 at 11:54
Pictures from Art Frames said…
Peter

Thank you. I will be adding more content soon so keep watching.

Peter
18 May 2008 at 12:07
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