Female, Switzerland, August (31st) 2006

Female ovipositing, Switzerland, August (31st) 2006

Female, Switzerland, August 2006

Same female, Switzerland, August 2006

Female, Switzerland, August 2006

Egg on blackthorn twig, Switzerland, January 2007

How the egg appears from a little further away

Male, September 1999, Britanny

Male (frame from an analogue video, September 1999)

I only see this butterfly in a few favoured places - some in England, near Oxford, one in Britanny, right next to the coast, and a couple in Switzerland. At these sites it is regular and predictable. Elsewhere I do not come across the species, though obviously it is very widespread, if local. One reason it is hard to spot is that the males spend a lot of time high in trees (like many hairstreaks). However, they do also take nectar at flowers, particularly hemp agrimony in my experience, and the females are relatively easier to see at lower levels laying their eggs in sloe bushes.

This is a lovely butterfly, especially the female. The colours are autumnal, like the butterfly, but brilliant when fresh. It is also quite large, and when tumbling out of a sloe bush looks not unlike an early leaf-fall. The female lays eggs quite conspicuously on the branches of sloe and in winter looking for these little white blobs is a favoured way of locating the butterfly. However, all the brown hairstreaks I have found have been located by searching sloe bushes in August and September for the butterfly itself.