Speckled Wood
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Speckled Wood by Jonathan Kington as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Speckled Wood
Image: © Jonathan Kington Taken: 24 May 2011
This lovely butterfly was sunning itself amongst the leaf litter on the edge of the path from Stratford sub Castle to Salisbury. The Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria) is very common across Britain and Europe. Its preferred habitats are woodland edges and rides, or anywhere with plenty of shade. They fly from March to October and usually produce a single batch of eggs in the north of Britain with up to three broods further south. They like to feed mainly on honeydew, a secretion produced by aphids that feed on tree sap, but they will also drink nectar from the blossoms of brambles and will often visit ragwort later on in the year. It is thought that the Speckled Wood population is on the increase in Britain with new forestry plantations coming to maturity and producing the shade that these butterflies require.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.083468
Longitude
-1.806276