Sexing Pre-hibernation Aglais adults?

Hi all,

Further to my initial post I have since been able to successfully sex the specimens using their forelegs. As some of you will be aware the forelegs in these 'brush-footed' butterflies are vestigial and the number of tarsal segments on the forelegs varies between the sexes. As a general rule, males usually posses 2 tarsal segments whilst the females usually posses 4 tarsal segments.

Please see the image below for clarification. From this image you can observe that the shorter, 2-tarsal (male) forelegs (A) are completely covered in brushes, whilst the longer (4-tarsal) female forelegs (B) protrude from the brushes. I hope that some of you will find this information useful for future reference.


Mark