Northern Brown Argus, continued ...

As an update to my previous post. 

I have been taking part in the Scottish Borders Northern Brown Argus surveys recently. I have seen a disappointingly low number of butterflies, possibly because of the weather on the days when I have been able to survey the local area. The area is becoming quite overgrown, as it has not been grazed for about the last 15 years. It is a bit of a worry that the Rockrose may become completely swamped.

However, last week I surveyed the valley above our house including a large area of grassland above the valley. I found quite a number of patches of Rockrose and I was amazed that on almost every patch I found Northern Brown Argus eggs.

I only saw three worn adults that day, but it was pleasing to see so many eggs. They show that there must have been a decent number of adult Northern Brown Argus flying in the last few weeks.

When I arrived home I thought I should check out my area of Rockrose and I was delighted to see quite a number of eggs here. So, it seems as though there may have been more than one Northern Brown Argus here. Despite me regularly checking the area, I only saw the one. Hopefully next year there will be more.

For some reason my camera just wouldn't focus on the eggs, so I took the above picture with my phone!

Northern Brown Argus

I was amazed and delighted to spot a Northern Brown Argus, Aricia artaxerxes, flying in our garden when I took the dogs out one day last month. There is a colony of Northern Brown Argus about 500 metres up the valley from us, but they are on the other side of a mature woodland, so I can’t imagine it has flown in from there.

Three years ago I planted out some Rockrose plants on a bank close to the house. Rockrose is the foodplant of Northern Brown Argus and I realised that the stream that runs through our garden is the same stream that runs through the colony up the valley. So, I took some cuttings and successfully rooted ten plants. They are now a good size, but I don’t think the area is large enough to sustain a population of Argus.

Two years ago I briefly saw a Northern Brown Argus on the drive right outside the house, so it isn’t the first time I have seen one here. That time I only saw it briefly on one occasion. This year’s butterfly was here again two days later, so it stuck around a little longer.

There has been very little sunshine in recent weeks, so not ideal weather for seeing if there are any other Northern Brown Argus about. I will carefully check the leaves of the Rockrose a little later in the season to see if there are any signs of egg-laying.