Sunday, August 02, 2009

helice-form Clouded Yellow

I took this video (by digiscoping) a Maxey pits this morning, in order to capture the upperwing of a female Clouded Yellow that lacked yellow ochre in the forewing (I could see it in flight, but it is very difficult to photograph.

In the video, you can see the butterfly feeding alongside a hoverfly until another comes along and sees it off, allowing a flash of upperwing (before a flash of my jeans...).



I took these screen grabs to show the upperwing pattern. Pale Clouded Yellow and Berger's Clouded Yellow females lack the extensive black around the upper hindwing and also the dusky grey cast to that wing. I think this confirms it as a female of the form helice.

2 comments:

andalucianguides said...

Good info...Still learning lots about butterflies and have a few interesting shots from French-France which may need some ID help. 'Jocko'

Anonymous said...

I've never managed the shot of the upperwing of Clouded Yellow or Cleopatra. I guess videoing is one way to get what you need to confirm an ID.
We could do with a Clouded Yellow or two in VC55. They obviously came in pretty much unseen during the Painted Lady invasion.
I must invest in a video camera. The new Sony HDD on looks good with a 60x Ziess zoom. My mates Tiger footage on the older model is brilliant.