Brown

Male Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)

Just recently, the Meadow Browns have arrived. They've been pretty conspicuous lately because they're one of the few butterfly species that remain active in dull weather — and we've seen plenty of cloud in the past week. We're getting into the peak flight time for this subtly-coloured butterfly; they're most plentiful in July and August, though they start to appear in June and continue through September. Butterfly Conservation (a UK charity dedicated to saving butterflies and moths) says the Meadow Brown is one of Britain's most widespread butterflies, found across the British Isles, though numbers appear to be declining fairly signficantly in much of Scotland. They're found in a wide range of grassland habitats (hay meadows, heathland, coastal dunes, roadside verges, etc.) as well as in cemeteries, gardens and parks. Females lay their eggs on grasses, particularly on fescues, bents and meadow-grasses, all of which we have here. These eggs soon hatch, and the resulting caterpillars munch grass for the rest of the summer before overwintering. 

Meadow Browns look a bit like a couple of other brown butterflies we have in the garden these days: the Gatekeeper and the Ringlet. Meadow Browns are distinguished by their larger size, the restricted orange patches and single "eyespot" on their forewings (with a single white "pupil" within that eyespot), and the lack of spots on their hind wings. Meadow Browns are among the UK's most abundant butterflies, with reports of hundreds accumulating in some spots. We don't see anywhere near that many here, but they are congregating in ever larger numbers in the garden, chasing each other around over the pocket meadow and resting on its mown paths. It's nice to know that we'll be seeing them around for the rest of the summer.