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Aerial Maps of butterfly survey

Butterfly Survey 1976-2025

Large Skipper Ochlodes venata

female

Wingspan - 33mm

The Large Skipper butterfly was a common butterfly on the hillsides and lanes around Eynsford and Shoreham and is still found on rough ground throughout the Borough of Bromley and beyond, but by 2025 in smaller and less dense populations. It is on the wing in June, but its emergence in late May, early June gives a clue to an increasingly early pattern of emmergence over the period of this survey.

Habit: The buttefly flies low among rough uncultivated grasses and briars. It flies quickly with a whirring (mothlike) movement, coming to rest frequently with both sets of wings set at different angles (something like the flight of a dart).

Field notes: Male and female differ in density of scent scale.

Single brooded. Partial second brood in exceptional summers 1976, 2025. *

Larvae: dark, bluish green, larvae over-winters in fully grown form on grass foodplant.

Larval Foodplant: a variaety of common wide bladed grasses - Cock's foot - False Brome.

Aberrations: not known to commonly produce aberrant forms

Status: not under threat, though probably declining as with other butterflies in our area from the beginning of the study.

Emergence variation 1976-2025 records from 2025 show the butterfly on the wing from late May/June to early July, with a parial second brood in August. The shift therefore is not as significant as in other species.

History in Kent 1800 - 1963 Records exist, such as in 1803, of the butterfly emerging in April. The range and status over the historical period is not significant, except that its Western movement is suspect. This is unlikely a factor now, where the butterfly is common in nearby Surrey, where modern records show an extended flight period rather than a partial second brood*

WH - White Hill SH- Shoreham, BC - Bromley Common, Ha Hayes--BN- Bromley North Ey - Eynsford Orp - Orpington Lull - Lullingstone HE - High Elms

© Rodney Compton