Species Focus - Purple Hairstreak butterfly (Favonius quercus)

Following the recent spell of fine weather, we thought it would be a good idea to promote butterfly recording this month. However, with so many charismatic species to choose from we decided to ask Andrew Graham (Vice-County butterfly recorder for Merionethshire, Caernarvonshire and Anglesey) for a species suggestion.

Andrew suggested Purple Hairstreak, since it is an abundant species which is rarely recorded because of its highly arboreal nature. It lives high up in the canopy of oak trees and rarely descends to the ground. Fortunately, Andrew mentioned a few useful field tips to help observe this species.

He recommends observing from a hillside where you can look down on an oak tree canopy, and that the species is often more active at dusk. Binoculars are also useful to record this species by scanning the oak canopy for small greyish butterflies making short flights between perches.

Andrew notes that this species is scarce in Anglesey due to the infrequency of oak trees but can be very common in parts of Snowdonia. So, here’s your August challenge – to find and record Purple Hairstreak butterflies in North Wales. Please submit your records via the Cofnod ORS or by using the LERC Wales App.