Yesterday a late Small White flew across my garden in Havant, and on Monday a Red Admiral paid a brief visit, but following last night's heavy frost, and the promise of more very cold weather ahead,  it seems unlikely that there will be many more butterfly sightings in the UK this year. I intend to pay a few visits to my local woods on sunny weekends however - just in case !

Those of you who have been following my adventures in Peru might like to visit the updated Moths of Amazon & Andes gallery, which has now been expanded to 5 pages, and illustrates an interesting selection demonstrating the bewildering diversity of moths to be found in South America. There are very few resources, paper or electronic, that illustrate more than a tiny fraction of the thousands of species found in Peru, so many will prove impossible to identify. During the winter I will however be attempting to identify as many as possible of the 600 moth species photographed on the trip, and to  expand the accompanying text.

My thanks go to those who have sent images for the Malaysia, India, North America, Australia and New Zealand galleries, which I will begin to update in November.

It may be mid-October, but today's clear blue skies and hot sunshine made it feel more like July !

I spent the afternoon at my local woodland Stansted Forest, and was greeted by a female Brimstone flying near the Rowlands Castle entrance. Inside the wood I soon came across a fresh and brightly marked Comma which circled around me several times before flying to the top of an ash tree. Soon afterwards I saw 2 Speckled Woods, both very old and faded, but very lively in behaviour.

I then walked through the wood to Forestside, and made my way back towards Rowlands Castle, but had to wait almost 2 hours before seeing my next butterfly - a gorgeous Red Admiral. My clumsy approach with the camera caused it to take flight, and it was immediately intercepted by another Red Admiral which flew up from the opposite side of the trail. Both were clearly males, as evidenced by the aerial combat which followed. They chased each other way up above the tree tops, circling rapidly before returning to their original perches. They settled about 3 metres apart, on bracken fronds on opposite sides of the trail. One was in quite fresh condition, but the other had a damaged hindwing, so it was easy to tell them apart, and to follow the behaviour of each individual.

I watched them for about half an hour, during which time at least a dozen sorties took place. What I expected to happen was for the "stronger" of the 2 males to oust his opponent from the vicinity, and to retain ownership of his perch, but what actually happened was rather different. After each sortie, both butterflies returned to their perches, and seemed quite content to share the same territory - a short 4 metre stretch of the trail where the sun broke through the foliage and reached ground level. What intrigued me was the fact that they regularly swapped places, with each butterfly periodically settling to perch on the leaf previously occupied by his "opponent".  The most logical explanation would seem to be that both butterflies were competing for the better of the 2 available perching places. Sometimes the fresh male won, sometimes the damaged one, and the "loser" had to settle for the next best thing, on the opposite side of the trail. It was fascinating to watch though - it's the little moments like this which make butterfly watching so rewarding.

Red Admiral  Vanessa atalanta male, Stansted Forest, West Sussex.