When in France, I saw a very active female Scarce Swallowtail flying and stopping over low new growths of prunus. She was egg laying. When I checked the leaves, she had laid one egg on each leaf sometimes on the upper side, sometimes on the underside. She only chose to lay on young prunus low over t...

Thank you Guy.
Sylvie

Merci David pour l'info.
It does make sense as the site is 'en plaine', alt about 200m.
Sylvie

I saw a dozen caterpillars of the Glanville Fritillary in the Rhone (69) in France feeding and resting on plantain. Here is a couple of pictures. The caterpillars are very active during the day and can be found easily on this site which I visited twice already. I did find about the same number of ca...

Can anybody help with the identification of this ringlet? Found at 1600m, I did not get a picture of the wings opened unfortunately. There were about 5 of these butterflies resting on the path but very wary and impossible to approach, all being quite small compared to Arran Brown for Ex and very dar...

Thank you Guy for a reply. I am glad to know that I got the identifications right so far. Believe me I consider you to be an expert compared to me and despite many years of butterflying I am always dubious about my identification when it comes to fritillaries, skippers, blues and ringlets... they ar...

I have identified the butterflies in picture 1 to 5 as Heath Fritillaries but am having second thoughts when browsing through Tolman... especially for no 5 as this specimen was a lot smaller than the Heath fritillary. Picture no 6 is a puzzle for me, the spots on the upper side hindwing indicate tha...

Roger, Chris and David, thank you very much for confirming. I will be posting more pictures of Fritillaries soon. Chris, we could have bumped into one another.... I did the Beauges, Belledonne and some lower altitude in the Savoie and the Rhone. The Beauges massif is limestone so it tends to have mo...

I think this is a Scotch Argus but I am not 100% sure. It was photographed in the Massif des Beauges in Savoie. Can one of the experts confirm please? Sorry for the quality of the picture but with the heat, it was very active…. And only managed to get the underside before it flew off far away. Thank...

Hi Tony,

What a remarkable, stunning little butterfly !! I have a book on butterflies of Ecuador somewhere in the house, if I can find it in there, I will let you know. Do you know where exactly in Ecuador this was taken (Mindo maybe?).
Sylvie

Hi Tony, Good observations on the behaviour of the wasp. Wasps and solitary bees when building their nest do not use smell to locate it but sight. They inspect the area where the nest is built very carefully and look for landmarks such as stones, vegetation etc and memorise them. When they fly back ...

Hi Chris,

Your wasp is a Polistes (paper wasp) and it could be Polistes Dominulus which is the commonest species of paper wasp in Europe (except in the UK where it is very rare).
Sylvie

Hi Chris, Excellent observations on the caterpillars. You seem to find them so easily.... what is your trick? Yes, I have holidays planned for France this year : 2 weeks in the Northern Alps - last week of June and first week of July. In the meantime, with the rather good weather, I enjoy what is ar...

Hi Chris, Interesting observations and nice pictures, you must be very busy at this time of year in the South of France.... I guess from July, everything will start to die off and you will need to go higher up. Regarding your dragonfly, I would go for Gomphus Simillimus although I would like to see ...

Thank you Peter, I think you are right, the broken white line on the back is a good indication that it is. I have so much to learn on caterpillars !
Thanks for your help on this.
Sylvie

I have found this caterpillar on Urtica in my garden. I believe it is the caterpillar of one of the Orthosia moth and my best guest is Orthosia Gothica.
Can somebody confirm ?
Thanks for your help.
Sylvie

Hi Russ, Nice species, especially the plain tiger... Your orange wasp is an Anthidium - usually very active especially around flowers in blossom waiting for females and defending their territory against any intruders. Your interesting bug could be a rainbow beetle but not sure, if yes then it is a n...

Hi David, Two Tailed Pasha are normally found all around the med at lower altitudes and normally in wooded areas where the foodplant (arbutus Unedo) is. If you can find this type of habitat, then you are in a good chance of finding the butterfly. I've seen the butterfly very often perched on a branc...

Hi Pete, I have done some reading and apparently, the way the female Black Veined White lays her eggs depends greatly on the ambient temperature and the elevation of the site. At lower altitudes, the underside of the leaf is favoured because it tends to be warmer whereas at higher elevations the upp...

Hi John, I've signed the petition. Like Jack, I think the solution is for people to pay more tax, this would help saving 1/ the precious nature reserves that we have left in this country and 2/ the NHS which is in a dire state. There is money for Brexit (for which 60 billion £ were borrowed) but not...