Holly Blue Butterfly (Celastrina argiolus)

The Holly Blue is a frequent visitor to urban parks, and this is just where I first spotted one, in the Holly-rich area of parkland that is part of the Barbican complex in Central London. I first spotted four or five of these beautiful butterflies on a dry and hot April lunch time, where they would fly high and erratically at around 25ft. before coming down to rest and feed for many minutes on the flowery bushes. The following Saturday I came down with my camera and waited for one to come down to the bushes, and this was one of the shots I got after two hours of waiting. The butterfly tends to sit with wings tightly closed, rubbing them together slowly. Only in weak sunlight do they rest with them open.

Dasychira pudibunda

Dasychira pudibunda is a member of the Lymantriidae family and is commonly known as the Pale Tussock, it is found in woods, parks and gardens across the whole of England and Wales and in localised areas in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The larvae emerge between July and October and have a range of broad leaved food plants including oak, birch, lime and hop leaves. They over winter in the leaf litter of the food plants-presumably in case they wake up early and fancy a snack.

The adults are on the wing during May and June and do not feed at all.

We saw this one on a warm sunny day on a very windy beach in Tenby in the first week of October in 2010. (Yes, I did say "warm" "sunny" and "October" in the same sentence, it did happen. I was there).