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Small tortoiseshell

 

 

There has been little proper summer weather this year, the rain has been plentiful and the second generation of pretty tortoiseshell butterflies were seen in north-western Estonia only a week ago. Another explanation is of course that we have simply not come across each other before.

 

Describing the exterior of the small tortoiseshell can be practiced from Arne’s photo.

 

On seeing the fresh and colourful butterfly pair ”playing" the female should be a little larger (but it is not a rule) – wing span sometimes even more than 5 centimetres, the males up to a centimetre less.

 

The imagos feed on nectar and it is estimated that we can see them on about a couple of hundred different indigenous flowering plant species.

 

During September the imagos that hatched in the end of June or early July search for a suitable wintering spot. After the wintering we see these really long-lived butterflies in flight again  in April next year, and an occasional ”senior tortoiseshell” with worn wings can still be seen even in early June.