• Speckled wood
• Wall brown
• marbled white
• grayling
• Gatekeeper
• Meadow brown
• Small Heath
• Ringlet

First Emergence

Habit: The Holly Blue is common around holly and ivy in parks and gardens and is the first blue butterfly to emerge in the spring. In some years there is an abundance of the little blue butterflies, when the UK populations are reinforced by massive migration from the near continent.

The male butterfly is active and can be seen searching out the reticent females high in the tops of the breeding plants of holly and ivy, which the butterfly, in spring and summer, was believed to alternate for its breeding cycle. It also has a particular preference for damp, muddy pathways.

Double brooded, eggs are laid singly on the buds of the host tree and soon hatch. The larvae then feed for several weeks before pupation, butterflies emerging after three weeks. This cycle is interrupted for the overwintering larvae, which resume the cycle of development in the spring, the butterfly emerging as early as late March.

Status: not under threat