I intended looking for chalkhill blues and others as advertised on the SOS website in the region of the Hood Monument and Butleigh Wootton today but didn't quite get far enough.  However, there was more than enough to keep me amused with common blues including some stunning views of males with their wings open in the sunshine.  Other buttlerflies, assuming I have the ids right included small heath, meadow brown and others I couldn't get close enough to photograph.

Plenty of crickets about and a fair number of 7-spot ladybirds and just one harlequin seen today.  There were a few 6-spot burnet moths and possibly some 5-spots but the latter were too busy to stop and pose.  The most surprising find for me was something that always gives me a shock, the giant belted hoverfly (Volucella zonaria).  I get an instinctive urge to run away when I see these whoppers which are of course entirely harmless.  They have great reflexes and although I managed my first ever picture of one today, it's poor quality!  I'll try this site again soon and get up to the Hood monument which is only a short walk away.

Insects of Collard Hill on 27th July, 2010 - click images to enlarge

More butterflies from Collard Hill 1st August 2010

Brown argus followed by a female and then two male common blues.