Small Tortoise Shell Butterfly

This animal, which is not at all like a reptile « with a shell », sports a rather flamboyant covering  The top of its bright orange wings, incrusted with ebony and edged with blue lunules outlined in black, compose its decoration. Precocious, the Small Tortoishell is the first butterfly to visit the flowers which have only just come out from under the snow on the most well exposed slopes.