Top 20 Most Common Insects in Torroella de Montgri

The old World swallowtail (Papilio machaon) is commonly just called the "swallowtail," giving it the added title of "old world" to distinguish it and remind us that it comes from the "old world" (Asia, Africa, Europe). The upper side of them is a beautiful combination of pure white with black striping, the underside being a brownish version of the same thing. There is blue and two red dots on its back side.

The Cleopatra butterfly (Gonepteryx cleopatra), also called Mediterranean brimstone butterfly, is a butterfly (butterfly) of the family White Whites (Pieridae). The specific epithet derives from Cleopatra, the beauty of the famous Egyptian queen.

The silver-washed fritillary (Argynnis paphia) is a beautiful, orange butterfly that is covered in black spots. It earns the "silver-washed" portion of its name through silver streaks you can find running along with it. It produces a scent using "scales" that allows it to distinguish itself when females are trying to locate it.

European peacock (Aglais io) is a colorful butterfly that resides in temperate Asia and Europe – hence its common name. Its prominent eyespots deter would-be predators, who mistake them for the eyes of a bigger, more dangerous species. In recent years, this species appears to be expanding its range into previously uncolonized territory.

Colias croceus has a wingspan of 46–54 millimetres (1.8–2.1 in). The upperside of the wings is golden to orange yellow with a broad black margin on all four wings and a black spot near the centre forewing. Usually these butterflies settles with its wings closed, consequently the black margin of the uppersides of the wings is difficultly visible. The underside lacks the black borders and is lighter, with a more greenish tint, particularly on the forewings. In the forewing underside is the same dark spot as on the upperside, but often with a light centre; the hindwing underside has a white centre spot, often with a smaller white or dark dot immediately above it. Sometimes, a row of black dots occurs on the underwings' outer margins, corresponding to where the black border ends on the upperside. Females differ from the males in having yellow spots along the black borders on the upperside. In flight, Colias croceus is easily identifiable by the intense yellow colouring, much brighter than that of the lemon-yellow male common brimstone which also lacks black markings. Like all Colias species they never open their wings at rest. In a small proportion of females (about 5%) the golden upperside colouration is replaced by a pale cream colour. These females have been distinguished as form helice. The pale form helice does not seem to be that distinct as intermediates exist and the variation is to some extent related to humidity during development, with dryer conditions producing paler colouration. These pale forms helice can be confused with Berger's clouded yellow (Colias alfacariensis) and the rarer Pale clouded yellow (Colias hyale). Even the palest C. croceus tends to have more black on the upperside however, in particular on the hindwings. Young caterpillars are yellow-green, with a black head. Later they become completely dark green, with a white red spotted lateral line after the third moult. The pupae are green and have a yellow side stripe. This species is rather similar to Colias myrmidone, Colias chrysotheme, Colias erate, Colias hyale, Colias alfacariensis, Colias caucasica, Colias aurorina.

The moths reach a wing span of 28 to 35 millimeters. Their forewings tops are colored ocher to orange-brown and have a broad, dark edge. The tops of the hind wings are dark brown. The wing bottoms run away from the wing approach from gray to orange. The rear third is dominated by a broad, white bandage. These are bordered by several black eye spots, which are white-seeded and outlined in orange and black. They are very different in size. Four to five of them are flown to the outer edge of the bandage, another sitting on the wing leading edge on the inward side of the bandage. Between the Augenfleckreihe and the wing edge runs a white-gray, the contour of the wing edge following line. The undersides of the forewings are colored orange and slightly greyish at the edges. On each of them there is another eye patch near the wing tips. The wings are gray fringed. The caterpillars are about 20 millimeters long. They are colored green and wear next to a strong white side strip another near the back, but is weak. At the abdomen end two white, at the tip pink colored tip protrude backwards.

It rests with closed wings when not in flight.

Contrary to what you may believe of its name, the gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) is a butterfly, not a heavily armored guard standing at an iron fence. The gatekeeper seems to have its own gate based on weather, as it cannot survive well in colder climates. It also survives through the two eyespots on the end of each of their wings, protecting them against bird attacks.

The males are blue in colour with a white border. Females are brown in colour becoming blue towards the body, with orange crescents towards the edges of the wings. Both males and females have pale brown undersides with black spots and orange crescents . The caterpillar reaches 1.6 cm in length, has a dark green body with dark spines , and yellow bands along the back and sides .

The upperside forewings are a bright orange with a dark outside edge border and with eight or nine black spots. The hindwings are dark with an orange border. Some females also have a row of blue spots inside the orange border and are known as form caeruleopunctata. The undersides are patterned in a similar way but are paler. The black spots on the forewings are outlined in yellow and the dark colouring is replaced by a pale brownish grey. The hindwings are the same brown/grey colour with small black dots and a narrow orange border. The caterpillars (larvae) are usually green, but some have a purple stripe down the middle of the back and along each side.