Birdguides received news early this week that an unprecedented invasion of
Scarce Tortoiseshell (also known as
Yellow-legged Tortoiseshell)
nymphalis xanthomelas La Vanesse du saule or
Tortue à pattes jaunes was taking place in the Netherlands — a country which had never previously recorded this eastern European species. There was until this week only one British record of this species, in 1953. Already a handful of new records has been confirmed in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.
They're coming - are they on their way here? They are unknown in France too. My pocket guide describes them as preferring valley bottoms and willows - we've got plenty of those! All photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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| Scarce Tortoiseshell by J.M.Garg, taken at Kullu Distt., Himachal, India |
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| Scarce Tortoiseshell by Alpsdake, Mount Gozaisho, Japan |
The Scarce Tortoiseshell is sometimes referred to as the
Large Tortoiseshell. The latter name now belongs to
Nymphalis Polychloros, which looks very similar, but has brown legs, hence its other name
Black-Legged Tortoiseshell (er...). This species is native to Western Europe and we occasionally see them
here.
As you see, they look very similar!
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| By Algirdas |
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| By Algirdas. Image rotated through 90 degrees |
Here's a comparison:
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| Scarce |
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| Large |
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| Scarce |
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| Large |
3 comments:
Good grief! No one is going to be able to tell them apart in the field! Curiously, Large Tortoiseshells have had a good year this year in France, emerging rather early and being recorded unusually often.
I think there could be the possibility that one of the photographers has got it wrong...
"...emerging rather early and being recorded unusually often."
Or are Scarce/Yellow-legged being misrecorded?
We were trying to find a better set of pictures of Yellow-legged vs Large this morning...
there were some from Denmark that showed paler legs... note: paler, not yellow!
They were taken MARCH 13th this year!
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