......Does cuckoo flower not grow at all in your neck of the woods? Lovely Green Underside Blue. I'm looking forward to reacquainting myself with this delight in 3 weeks time. Hi David, No cuckoo flower in central southern France or SE France it would appear. Here is its distribution: cartes.jpg Th...

......I was a bit surprised at the Scarce Swallowtail egg - it really stands out, I thought it might have been a little more discrete, mind you the imago isn't discrete either is it :D .... Wurzel Hi Wurzel, Yes, the Scarce Swallowtail eggs are big and quite easy to find. Here are 2 photos of the s...

Charles Nicol wrote: ... more holly blues in the back garden .... femaleblue.JPG

Great open-wing shot, Charles !!
Nice one.
Chris

Hi Folks - south of France. Here are some images from last week end. Our local host plant for the Orange Tip is Rock Cress or Arrow-leaved wall cress ( Arabis saggitata ). Here is an OT egg on the Cress: cardamines37 egg on Arabis sagittata St Marcel_13 27Apr19 (a).JPG This is the Cress : Arabis sag...

David M wrote: .... I still reckon 100+ species is possible in a week at that time of year. I shall be trying my best to achieve that!

I'm not surprised that your trips are so popular, David, keep up the good work.
Chris

That's a quick turnaround Chris from adult to eggs in a few weeks - are the imagos still flying? ..... Wurzel Yes Wurzel, the imagos are flying and in numbers on many of my sites. Here is the proof : cinxia36 mating Vitrolles olive grove 30Apr19 (7).JPG cinxia36 mating Vitrolles olive grove 30Apr19...

Hi Chris. .... Loved your Spotted Fritillary chrysalis pictures. What an amazing creature this fritillary is, in all its stages! Thanks Essex, I'm still waiting for the butterfly to emerge so that I can recover the empty pupa!! For me, now, and down here, early stages provide just as many photo opp...

The latest from the south of France. It seems like only 3 weeks ago that I was watching M. cinxia cats feeding on Plantago, and here we are again already with eggs on that same Plantago. Freshly laid Glanville eggs: cinxia35 eggs on Plantago lanceolata Vitrolles olive grove 26Apr19 (2).JPG Glanville...

How I wish I could get away to see hecate at that time, Chris. Sadly, I'll be just back from the French Pyrenees and preparing for another jaunt to Italy a few days later (can't wait till I retire)! Nice to see Provence Orange Tips on the wing. Hopefully they'll be in full flow when I arrive in the...

... the Marshie - to my eyes it seems to have a thicker and more consistent orange band on the hind wings than the UK subspecies - is that one of the ID markers? The male POT is stunning but I from your shot of the female I would probably rate her higher - there's beauty in the more subtle tones .....

A good haul Pete for a spring trip.
As David says, your time slot was well planned.
The Chapman's Green Hairstreak is still on my wish list
Cheers,
Chris

... Here is my nomination for the butterfly least prepared to call it a day after hibernating ... It was still able to engage in aerial warfare with a just-emerged Glanville Fritillary ... , yes, it is (just) a Large Tortoiseshell .. Roger Yes, probably deserves a long service medal, this one. I ha...

Hi Folks, Here is the latest news from the south of France. This weekend I had an outing with a group of serious entomologists from the département of La Vaucluse, just to the north of Marseilles - a group called the "R.E.V.E.". For these people, BFs represent only a minor insect group but...

David M wrote: .... When is Twin Spot Fritillary usually on the wing in this location? ....

Hi David,
My earliest Twin-spot Frit sighting down here up to now has been the 1st of June but I will be exploring earlier - perhaps 2 weeks earlier.
If you can make it - I'll show you where .
Chris

Thanks Guy,
That's great.
Chris

Hello,
Any takers ?
My brother in law spotted this in Corsica. Probably a day-flying moth.
Thanks
Chris

Nice shots Nick. Sorry about the weather.
Thanks for sharing.
Chris

Impressive, thanks for sharing, Charles.
Chris

Hi Folks, A couple of updates from the south of France. On the Brown Hairstreak front, I went to check out our local eggs and found that about half of them had hatched although I couldn't see one single cat (probably burrowed into a leaf bud somewhere). Hatched egg: betulae13 egg hatched La Taurelle...

Thanks Wurzel and David,

The earliest I've photographed L. reducta is the 26th of April, but anytime early to mid May would appear to be average.

Chris