White-letter hairstreak
| White-letter hairstreak | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Lycaenidae |
| Genus: | Satyrium |
| Species: | S. w-album |
| Binomial name | |
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Satyrium w-album (Knoch, 1782) |
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The white-letter hairstreak (Satyrium w-album) is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.
A dark little butterfly that spends the majority of its life in the tree tops, feeding on honeydew, making it best observed through binoculars. The uppersides are a dark brown with a small orange spot in the bottom corner of the hindwing. The male has a small pale spot on the forewings made up of scent scales. The undersides are a lighter brown with a thin white line, the "hairstreak", which gives this group of butterflies their name. On the hindwing this streak zigzags to form a letter W (or M) from which this species gets its name. The outer edge of the hindwing has an orange border, but there is no orange on the forewings as on the similar black hairstreak and there are two short tails on the hindwings. Part of a group known as "lateral baskers", they always rest with their wings closed.
The insect has a widely disjunct distribution across the Northern Hemisphere; it is found throughout much of Europe, from Wales to the Urals, including Scandinavia, and again in the Far East, including Japan. It is absent from North America.
It is widely but patchily distributed across most of England; the butterfly is absent from Scotland, Ireland, western Wales and most of Cornwall. The spread of second, far more lethal, strain of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s inevitably had a major impact on the British population, but it has since recovered well in places and is still increasing its range.
To safeguard the future of this butterfly, some conservation organisations within the UK, such as the Hampshire and Isle of Wight[2] branch of Butterfly Conservation and the Forestry Commission, have planted disease-resistant cultivars, notably Lutece. The beetle-resistant European white elm has also been planted, notably by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust. More details about these projects can be found in the References section of this article.
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Wikipedia