Category: Butterflies & Moths

  • Cinnabar

    Cinnabar

    Cinnabar moths are on the wing from mid-May to early August, and their yellow and black banded caterpillars munch on Ragwort through the summer. Photo: Amanda Scott

  • Common Heath

    Common Heath

    This day-flying moth species is on the wing in June across heathlands on The Lizard. Photo: Sarah Board

  • Purple Hairstreak

    Purple Hairstreak

    This pretty butterfly is not uncommon, but hard to spot as it spends most of its time flying at the tops of oak trees. You might see one in July […]

  • Silver-washed Fritillary

    Silver-washed Fritillary

    The Silver-washed Fritillary is the largest of the UK Fritillaries. Look out for it at the height of summer, in July and August. Photo: Ray Surridge

  • Emperor Moth

    Emperor Moth

    The spectacular Emperor moth is on the wing in April and May.  Photo: Emily Hobson

  • Comma

    Comma

    The delightful Comma butterfly, with its raggedy wings, can be spotted through the summer months and into early autumn. Photo: Dougy Wright

  • Garden Tiger

    Garden Tiger

    Garden Tiger caterpillars are known as Woolly Bears, for obvious reasons. Photo: Steve Townsend

  • Gatekeeper

    Gatekeeper

    Late July and early August is the peak time for the chocolate and orange Gatekeeper butterfly. Look out for them round hedgerows and scrubby areas. Photo: Amanda Scott

  • Privet Hawk-moth

    Privet Hawk-moth

    This lovely Privet Hawkmoth was spotted at Caerthillian, resting on a fence. Photo: Steve Townsend

  • Grass Eggar

    Grass Eggar

    The sea-cliffs of the south-west, including those of The Lizard, are among the best places to find the Grass Eggar moth, a nationally scarce species. Photo: Wikimedia Commons 

  • Peacock

    Peacock

    Peacock butterflies emerge into the sunshine from their winter sleep in the spring. Photo: © Natural England/Paul Lacey

  • Boathouse Gem

    Boathouse Gem

    Mark Tunmore of Atropos discovered the migrant moth Thysanoplusia daubei (the Boathouse Gem) at Church Cove on the Lizard in 2014 – the first record for Britain!   Photo: Mark Tunmore

  • Grayling

    Grayling

    Grayling butterflies require plenty of bare earth for basking, so watch out for them in later summer along the trackways of the Lizard Downs. They are on the wing into […]

  • Small Tortoiseshell

    Small Tortoiseshell

    Small Tortoiseshells usually produce two broods in a year, and so a second-generation of adults emerges in August. Photo: Amanda Scott

  • Common Blue

    Common Blue

    The Common Blue is one of the butterflies counted annually in Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count. Photo: Dougy Wright

  • Buff-tip

    Buff-tip

    Adult Buff-tips may be experts at disguise, but the brightly coloured caterpillars can’t be missed. Photo: Ben Sale