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Hebrides - Hebridean Wildlife - Butterflies and Moths - The Isle of Harris -The Isle of Lewis - Western Isles.
The Hebrides or Western isles are a great place to watch butterflies and moths. You can get observe the butterflies behaviour on both The Isle of Harris and The isle of Lewis


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Email: chris@gcwweb.com
 
(Click Image for Larger Pictures)        
Common Blue Butterfly - Garry Western Isles   Common Blue Butterfly - the female - Rodel- Western Isles July 2009   Garden Tiger Moth - Western Isles
Common Blue Butterfly - Male - Garry
  
Common Blue Butterfly - Female
 
Garden Tiger Moth
The male common blue butterflies have pale violet-blue upper wings with grey-beige undersides.

Adult butterflies can be seen between May and September, sometimes October in warm years.
 
Another female common blue butterfly - we saw at Rodel - Isle of Harris - Western Isles

Click for More Info on The Common Blue Butterfly...........
  
Garden Tiger Moth - Moth Sightings in the Hebrides - Arctia caja. Its forewings are a chocolate brown with cream patterns and its hindwings are an orange red with black spots.
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painted lady butterfly at Rodel Jun 2009   Butterfly White with Yellow and Black seen on the track after the bridge to nowhere Garry Tolsta WEstern Isles June 2009   painted lady butterfly garry western isles
Painted Lady Butterfly - Rodel
 
Magpie Moth - Garry
  
Painted Lady Butterfly
A really pretty painted lady butterfly at Rodel - Isle of Harris - Western Isles - June 2009
 
The Magpie Moth is a day-flying species which is therefore often taken for a butterfly.  It has a strange ecology, the larvae feed on gooseberries in gardens in the South, but up in the Highlands they have adapted to feeding on heather and are sometimes very numerous.
  
A beautiful painted lady butterfly at Garry - Tolsta Western Isles Jun 2009
         
Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly   Meadow Brown Butterfly - Western Isles Aug 2009   Hebrew Character Moth - Western Isles
Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly - Female
 
Meadow Brown Butterfly
 
Hebrew Character Moth
A female tortoiseshell butterfly see at Garry on the moorland cliff tops - resting on a Scottish Thistle.
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Meadow brown butterflies - seen in The Western Isles - A dull dark brown upper wing, with pale orange patches
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The Hebrew Character moth which is named so due to the dark mark near the centre of the forewing.
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Butterfly Facts - Interesting Facts - All about Butterflies
Taste

Many butterflies taste with their feet to find out whether the leaf they sit on is good to lay eggs on to be their caterpillars' food or not.

Skeletons - Exoskeleton - Related to Crabs and Lobsters - Arthropods
Butterflies and insects have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, called the exoskeleton. This protects the insect and keeps water inside their bodies so they don’t dry out. Butterflies are related to crabs and lobsters! Why? Because those sea creatures also have skeletons on the outside of their bodies! Butterflies are arthropods.

28,000 Species

There are about 28,000 known Butterfly species throughout the world.

Cold Blooded
Butterflies are cold blooded and don't produce metabolic heat like humans, they must rely on the sun to raise their body temperature to be able to move about. Many bask with wings open - others close their wings together.

Mating
To mate the male or female will perform courtship movements and release pheromones. The pair of butterflies then turn abdomen to abdomen and mate for an hour or more. Sometimes they will even fly around with either the male of female dangling. The male butterfly will pass the female a sperm packet that is used for fertilizing eggs.

Eggs
A butterfly can lay up to 500 eggs

Flight Speeds
Some butterflies can reach speeds of up to 2 miles per hour. Butterflies aren't able to fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.

Butterfly - So Named
Past beliefs have it that the word butterfly is derived from the expression "butter-coloured fly", a term which may have been applied to the Brimstone a yellow butterfly and one of Britain's most well known - a species which hibernates as an adult and, as such, spends the majority of its life as an adult butterfly.


Butterfly Sight - Ultra Violet - up to 6000 lenses

Butterflies can see ultraviolet light - which humans cannot see - it makes the markings on flowers very vivid to them and guides them to the nectar tubes. Some butterflies have ultraviolet markings on their own wings which are visible only to other butterflies. Butterflies have compound eyes each of which can consist of up to 6,000 individual lenses.


Butterflies Hearing
Butterflies aren't able to hear - they can feel vibration which is useful when hiding from predators


Communication Amongst The Butterflies
Most butterflies communicate using chemical signals - male butterflies produce pheromones - which trigger a welcoming response from others of the same species. Occasion a butterfly will in effect use sound as they "rustle" their wings
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Antarctica - No Butterflies
The only continent where no butterflies can be found is Antarctica


         
         
BUTTERLIES AND MOTHS OF THE WESTERN ISLES