A-Z Challenge 2015 - Butterflies 'Q'

Q - Quercusia quercus, Queen of Spain Fritillary

I thought I was going to be stuck with the Queen of Spain that I mentioned under 'F'

Then I came across Quercusia quercus. I thought initially that this had something to do with the tree on a postage stamp from Great Britain

The English Oak - Quercus robur

It turned out that the place to see Quercusia quercus, aka the Purple Hairstreak, is fluttering in woods round the crowns of the oak and ash.

Purple Hairstreak Butterfly

It has nothing in common with that purple hair rinse that's favoured by some ladies I'm told.

Female Purple Hairstreak

It's the female that has those permanently purple patches; the upperside of the male is brown but may show a purple sheen from some angles in bright sunlight.

My longstop for Q has always been the - 

Queen of Spain Fritillary

It has light spots on its underside that shine like mother of pearl.

The Queen of Spain is a migratory butterfly which flies from Southern Europe to England in favourable years.

Love is like a butterfly
As soft and gentle as a sigh
The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings
Love makes your heart feel strange inside
It flutters like soft wings in flight
Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing

I feel it when you're with me
It happens when you kiss me
That rare and gentle feeling that I feel inside
Your touch is soft and gentle
Your kiss is warm and tender
Whenever I am with you I think of butterflies

Love is like a butterfly
The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings
Love makes your heart feel strange inside
It flutters like soft wings in flight
Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing

Photo attributions:

• Purple Hairstreak: Alners Gorse, Dorset, 3 August 2013, upload by tm, by Ian Kirk - CC BY 2.0
• Queen of Spain Fritillary: 13 June 2011, by Gail Hampshire - CC BY 2.0

A-Z Challenge - 'Q'

My A-Z posts this year are based on my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies - with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat somewhat – wishing they were here.

Q – Quail, Quercus

It’s queer that I quailed when I came to ‘Q’ as although I could find no connection in my garden, I remembered the one British bird that qualifies.

 

Quail (A Pet!)

I wandered out one rainy day
And heard a bird with merry joys
Cry 'wet my foot' for half the way;
I stood and wondered at the noise,

The quail is not a common bird but it often appears, and so do its eggs, on restaurant menus. In many countries it is still hunted which led me to this verse:

I remember we used to have quails here,

Whose peaceful morning calls would evoke

From me a childish bout of smiling and giggling,

And just to be polite, I'd return the call.

If you are wondering about what Quercus stands for then perhaps this photo will help you make the connection.

Oak Trees (Growing at field boundaries)

  Live thy Life,

Young and old,

Like yon oak,

Bright in spring,

Living gold;

There is a small wood that I pass most days of the week and it contains a number of oak (Quercus) trees. As they are not readily accessible I have a limited numbers of photos of them and then not the whole of the tree.

Oak Tree Leaves (April 2007)

I don’t seem to have visited the wood in time to get a picture of the acorns.

 

Quercus robur - foliage and acorns

However in November 2007 I did find these:

 

Oak Apples

Oak apple is the common name for a large, round, vaguely apple-like gall commonly found on many species of oak. Oak apples range in size from 2–5 cm in diameter and are caused by chemicals injected by the larva of certain kinds of gall wasp. They are formed after the female wasp lays its eggs in developing leaf buds and are a source of food for the wasp’s larva.

Poems:

• Quail’s Nest – John Clare http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/quail-s-nest/
• Quails – Michael Aliester Smith
• The Oak – Alfred Lord Tennyson http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-oak-2/

Photos:

• Quail (pet) – Samar; CC BY-SA 3.0
• Oak Trees – Evelyn Simak; Geograph project collection; CC BY-SA 2.0
• Oak foliage and acorns – Wikipedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0