June on the Isle of Skye

8 June 2016
It looks like being a good year for Painted Lady butterflies. I've had sightings in three different places in the last three days. It's a migratory species, so numbers can be highly variable from one year to the next.
	The Six-spot Burnet moth is one of our most striking day-flying moths and there were lots on the wing today. The larvae feed on Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and the adults seem to like it too!

9 June 2016 ... Two more day-flying moths
Speckled Yellow (Pseudopanthera macularia)	Silver-ground Carpet (Xanthorhoe montanata)

12 June 2016 ... A sawfly that I haven't seen before:

Tenthredopsis nassata

22 June 2016 ... We were up near Pool Roag doing a botanical survey and came across two of Skye's rarest plants (Lepidium heterophyllum and Scrophularia auriculata), and then, on a patch of marshy ground not far away, lots of caterpillars.
Smith's Pepperwort (Lepidium heterophyllum)	Emperor moth larvae

25 June 2016 ... Another Skye rarity that only grows on the margins of a few of our freshwater lochs:
Lesser Water Plantain (Baldellia ranunculoides)	Lesser Water Plantain (Baldellia ranunculoides)

30 June 2016 ... Another bug for the collection and a young Emperor moth caterpilar. Notice how different it is from the more mature ones above.
Leptoterna ferrugata	Emperor moth larva