From the 'gatekeeper' to the 'Scotch argus', where did butterflies and moths get their strange names? - Country Life

The names of our butterflies are so familiar now that it is easy to miss how strange they are. Some are baldly descriptive: there’s a large white (Pieris brassicae) and a small white (Pieris rapae); a large blue (Phengaris arion) and a small blue (Cupido minimus).

Yet we also have the more cryptic grayling (Hipparchia semele), gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus), Scotch argus (Erebia aethiops) and wall (Lasiommata megera). We have a quintet with linear markings called hairstreaks and a group with chequered wings called fritillaries. These names are full of words that passed out of everyday use some time ago.