This individual was feeding on a Dandelion flower and seemed oblivious to me pointing my camera at me. The female Orange Tip strangely, has no orange tips to the wings and is easily mistaken for a small white or green-veined white butterfly. But, there is no mistaking the males.
The second part of the scientific name of the Orange Tip (cardamines) is a reference to one of the butterfly's main food plants, the Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis), which is also now making an appearance among the grasses.
This attractive plant is a member of the cabbage family or Brassicaceae and the flowers can vary quite lot from almost white to a deeper purple/pink. This particular plant had unusually dark pink flowers for these parts, with paler pinks being most common.
No comments:
Post a Comment