Thanks Guy!

I wasn't in the area to look for butterflies, but can warmly recommend the hilly parts of southern Drôme to anyone looking for butterflies - plenty of them and unusual species too.

I saw these three blues on a road verge at Aleyrac (Drôme, SE France) on 8 June 2023 - limestone grassland amid downy oak woods/scrub - can anyone please help with the ID? 1) maybe male Escher's Blue - a largish, Adonis-sized/shaped blue - the poor second photo is included as it gives a hint of the ...

The tigers are new to the garden here this year, but have been fairly regular visitors the last week or so.

Hi David. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think named aberrations/forms can cross species. Leraut describes and illustrates an almost identical female chalkhill blue as f. tithonus (= syngrapha ) but the corresponding form in caelestissimus is given as f. deliciosa , de Sagarra, 1924. Obviousl...

I've rarely had a problem photographing Wall Brown; the whites and hairstreaks on the other hand never seem to sit still to allow for photos.

Special Agent Semele was on fine form, proving excellently camouflaged against the banks of streams and amongst drifts of pine cones in addition to the usual stones and tree trunks. It was noticeable, though, that they didn't have that characteristic behaviour of British graylings, appearing to take...

Zapater's Ringlet on a zapata.

A thoroughly enjoyable trip - plenty of butterflies, many unusual, an excellent setting and friendly, knowledgeable guides - warmly recommended!

The sun is a hoax.

I'm not quite sure I can buy that as an ID. If it is jurtina , it is by some margin the smallest example of that species I have ever seen - Small/Dusky Heath size. I'm getting uneasy about lycaon as an ID for the same reason, though as far as I can tell lycaon is the smaller of the two meadow brown ...

Excellent - thanks - a new species for me. Looking forward to next week!

Dave - I've had SWF in the garden here a few times - if there's a colony within a few miles, even a small one, they will wander outside it to quite some degree.

Somehow in 20+ years of visiting the Malaga area, I hadn't managed to visit in high summer before. In truth it was disappointing - I would have seen more butterflies and more species if I had stayed in my garden, and humidity plus temperatures of around 35C made looking for them unpleasant. There we...

View from the top of the Col Agnel on 13 June, looking back into France. The Italian side was shrouded in mist. Hardly a place for butterflies!

Does the Mazarine Blue still fly at any of the locations to which Martin White reintroduced it? If so, is it likely to be on the wing next weekend?

Likewise. It looked a lot more wintry than that two weeks earlier!

There are almost always surprises when butterflying in France, Chris. I think you are right about the Heath Frits and I'm sure the other one is Marbled. Thanks - too true about the surprises - a few days previously we had decamped from the motorway near Vienne to avoid one of its monster traffic ja...

That Marbled Frit is a bit of a looker Matsukaze 8) It would be good if the UK could increase the biodiversity of its butterflies - but unfortuately it culd be a case of some winning at the expense of others :( Have a goodun Wurzel They are lovely butterflies but an absolute nightmare to photograph...

Bellebranche (Mayenne, France) - 19 June 2023 I wasn't sure what to expect from a brief stop in this woodland - for all I knew it might have turned out to be conifer monoculture. In reality it turned out to be largely oak woodland with an area of clearfell that attracted a lot of butterflies. The f...