Today I spent around an hour at Monk Sherborne searching for the Queen of Spain Fritillary (Issoria lathonia), following reports of several individuals being seen in the area. There were quite a few other very keen butterfly enthusiasts there, all hoping to see this particularly unusual visitor.

I was lucky enough to see the Queen of Spain Fritillaries during my search. This was particularly exciting because this species is not resident in the UK and is normally considered a very rare migrant.

What makes the records at Monk Sherborne especially interesting is that several individuals have appeared within the same relatively small area. There has been speculation that these may represent a later brood produced in Britain following an earlier arrival of migrants, rather than simply a number of unrelated migrant butterflies arriving independently.

Seeing them for myself made this a particularly memorable field visit. It was also interesting to experience the excitement generated by such an unusual occurrence, with so many butterfly enthusiasts gathering in one place to search for them.

I will be interested to follow the records from the site over the coming weeks and see whether more evidence emerges about where these butterflies originated and whether successful breeding has taken place locally.