Mid-Summer Comma

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025

This year we have not seen many of the colourful English Summer butterflies. There have been one or two Red Admirals and Peacocks but no Painted Ladies. Mostly it’s been the less welcome — when you have a vegetable patch — Cabbage Whites and some yellow Brimstones plus lots of the smaller Meadow Browns and occasional Tortoise Shells. Today, however, a Comma came to settle on a rhododendron leaf. It’s a strange name for a butterfly, but its punctuation mark is only visible when it has its wings folded.