Aberrations

One of my guests on the butterfly tour last month brought this Chalkhill Blue butterfly to my attention. It’s unusually coloured. It’s an aberration, a freak, a variation that nature sometimes throws into the pot. I was curious what the Butterfly County recorder, Andy Brazil,  would make of it. Here’s what he said:

Chalkhill’s have historically had a lot of variations recorded, but we’ve not had any from Norfolk before.

There’s a similar aberration here http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/gallery/image_page.php?album_id=271&image_id=11243 named as post-obsoleta, but this female also has a paler, washed-out ground colour of ab pallidulla. I’ve looked through this list http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/aberrations.php?species=coridon but nothing quite matches the combination. So I’d say it was ab. post-obsoleta ab.pallidulla so two aberrations on the same insect!

So there you go. Another first for Norfolk!