Speckled Wood
Pararge aegeria
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Owns a sunny gap in the trees, and will spiral upwards with any male that tries to take it.
A dark brown butterfly generously dappled with creamy-yellow blotches, patterned to match the broken light of a woodland floor. Speckled woods live in dappled shade — woodland rides and clearings, shady hedgerows, mature gardens — and are one of very few butterflies genuinely at home out of full sun. They have spread north and are now well established around Dumfries.
Behaviour
Males hold sunlit patches on the woodland floor and defend them vigorously: two males meeting spiral tightly upward together until one gives way, and the resident almost always wins. The species is unique among British butterflies in being able to overwinter either as a caterpillar or as a pupa, which produces a long, muddled succession of emergences rather than clean broods.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Browns (Nymphalidae, subfamily Satyrinae)
- Wingspan
- 4.5–5 cm
- Status
- Native; expanding north strongly
Photo by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons