Great Banded Grayling

Brintesia circe

Switzerland, July 2003

Hungary, July 1994

My mother watches a great banded grayling fly around her feet. Switzerland 2003.

The great banded grayling is a magnificent butterfly, large and strikingly marked like an admiral, and with an equally swooping, powerful flight. It flies across much of Europe but is commonest in hot regions with plenty of bushes. In the summer of 2003, which was exceptionally hot in Switzerland, I saw greater numbers of this insect than I have ever seen before.