Thanks to my Estonian friend Aiki …… I now know the species of this butterfly (Pararge aegeria) also know as The Speckled Wood which I came across sunning itself in Hobbit Lane.
The Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) is a butterfly found in and on the borders of woodland throughout much of the Palearctic ecozone. In North Europe, Central Europe, Asia Minor, Syria, Russia and Central Asia where subspecies P. a. tircis occurs it is brown with pale yellow or cream spots and darker upperwing eyespots. In southwestern Europe and North Africa the subspecies P. a. aegeria has a colour which is more orange in the background; the hindwing underside eyespots are reddish brown rather than black or dark gray. The two forms gradually intergrade into each other. The speckled wood also occurs on the Atlantic island of Madeira. Molecular studies[1]suggest that the African and Madeiran populations are closely related and distinct from European populations of both subspecies, suggesting that Madeira was colonized from Africa and that the African population has a long history of isolation from European populations.
PHOTO JOURNEYS 