There are lots of insects in the world, aren’t there? Lots of little creatures and lots of different kinds of little creatures.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about the class Insecta. Here’s what Earthlife says about the orders of insects. I’m grateful to my fellow blogger Jenny at Spokes and Petals for tempting me to pick one insect order, the Lepidoptera – butterflies and moths – to blog about for a while. Like I said earlier today, the Lepidoptera are excellent indicator species. They’re also very beautiful.
Steven Cheshire at British Butterflies tells us what’s flying in Britain, month by month. As I write this it’s January – not a time much associated with wild butterflies – but apparently we might find the brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni), the peacock (Inachis io) and the red admiral (Vanessa atalanta).
It’s cheering to find that I recognise each of these species. I’ve lived in Britain all my life and some of the common Lepidoptera look like old friends.
Science on the Land 
Please post if you see any of these butterflies this month. It’ll give us all hope that springtime is imminent!
Ha! When I wrote this blog post, much of Britain was under snow. You’re right that I haven’t seen any butterflies recently because it’s winter. Starting ‘Lepidopteran of the Month’ in January suits me because it lets me take my time, learning.
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