Chequered Skipper butterfly branching out
June 2013. The glorious recent sunshine enabled the ranger team at the National Trust for Scotland's Glencoe and Dalness to spot a species that is new to the area, the Chequered Skipper butterfly. The species is only known in the UK within a 30 mile radius of Fort William, but had never been recorded at Glencoe until now.
Ecologist Dan Watson, joined by volunteers Joss Ratcliffe and Callum Gilhooley, decided that the conditions were perfect for a butterfly hunt. Dan said: "We targeted suitable habitat in Glen Etive, starting at a fenced off area in Dalness. This looked perfect for Chequered Skippers, having a south-east facing slope covered with scattered trees, purple moor-grass (the larval food plant) and bluebells, which the adults prefer to nectar on.
20 Chequered skippers
"After a few false alarms caused by similarly-sized Common Heath moths, Joss caught something different in his net which turned out to be our target species. Once we'd got a better search image we started seeing them everywhere, counting at least thirteen individuals, four of which were metres from the road, seen while we were eating lunch.
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