I'm getting motion sickness from your dashing around Europe, David! But you're seeing some lovely butterflies and getting excellent records of them. I've only once been to Greece - to the island of Spetses (of the Magus) in spring. I'd like to go to the mainland.

Guy

Hi Buzzard. What a brilliant butterfly. After we had so much snow in May, when the caterpillars were feeding up, I was on the look out for melanic heath fritillaries like yours. But so far, all seem normal. That supports your theory that it is chilling at the pupal stage that causes it. We just had ...

You're a hero, Pete! I'm always blown away with the distinguished and elusive butterflies you track down and photograph!

Like John Vergo, though, I can offer you cranberry fritillaries on a plate if you ever choose to visit Switzerland!

Guy

Hi Wurzel. Switzerland's an expensive place to visit, too, especially if you have a family. But I look forward to showing you some of our specialities one day! Hi David. This season is by far the worst I have known, in 35 years of Swiss butterflying. Admittedly, when I first came out I knew much les...

Hi Pete. For your beetles, try Gaurotes virginea and Oreina cacaliae. There are several species of Oreina in my books, but this looks the best, and can be blue or green.

Wonderful alexanor piccies!!

Guy

Thanks Buggy. Your adult male pennipes has much bigger flanges on the middle legs than I've seen and confirms that my insect could have been a teneral pennipes . For now, I'll call it that, as I can't find any reference to latipes in Switzerland and teneral insects are much more difficult than adult...

It's great seeing those Dusky Large Blues Guy as it takes me back to a baking summer holiday in the Czech Republic - my first foreign butterflying trip :D 8) I had a similar experience to you in that the Dusky LBs were all over the Greater Burnet 8) Have a goodun Wurzel I remember your Czech trip, ...

I took a trip today to a wetland I have never visited before, where I think/hope chestnut heath flies. I didn't see any today, but this is a strange year so I'll try again if I get the chance. I did see quite a lot of damselflies/dragonflies. Most were common things, and most of the dragonflies, rat...

In my opinion, all of your images show hutchinsoni individuals, Paul, for the reason Dave gives and also by jizz.

I've been trying to persuade people to call the 'normal' variety starski but it hasn't caught on! Hutchinson was the blond one ...

Guy

Hi Wurzel. I agree - the 'frosting' on the alpine grizzly is characteristic. I actually see it as a diaphanous veil, draped along the margin on the hindwing. Nothing else has that effect. And I agree: if you're thinking of sending your lovely wife a Valentine's day card of a butterfly, turquoise blu...

Hi Roger. We can't see much of the hindwings of the upper insect, but I like him for armoricanus . We can see even less of the hindwing of the lower butterfly, but given that he's smaller I think we can probably rule out alveus (though at altitude I've seen very small alveus ). How about serratulae ...

Up my local mountain today, more typical bright-eyed ringlets ( Erebia oeme ) were flying: https://www.guypadfield.com/images2024/oeme13jul2024a.jpg https://www.guypadfield.com/images2024/oeme13jul2024b.jpg Because it was quite cool, they weren't closing their wings, but I got this distant shot of a...

As an addendum to my previous post: Vincent Baudraz agrees the all-dark Erebia is oeme. The form is apparently known from that area.

Guy

Hi Wurzel. Yes, Nature is messier than any neat partitioning into species, subspecies and so forth - not least because speciation is an ongoing process, not something that happened once and forever in Bible days! :D That's one of the beauties of living in the Alps. You can see some of the dynamics o...

I'm with Buggy and Wurzel - sorry!

Guy

The Spanish festoon egg on the right is a wonder to behold, Pete! Those fern designs … There’s nothing like that on the caterpillar, or at least not on the instars I’ve seen.

Guy

Hi Dave. This is helice. The complete enclosure of the yellow/white spot closest to the trailing edge of the forewing in the dark border is a sure giveaway. Wing shape and overall appearance are less easy to judge but also point to helice.

Guy

Psyche does mean ‘Butterfly’ in Greek … Too obscure?

Guy

What a bizarre mistake! A pinned specimen of L. nina (and a pinned large white, too) instead of a small white!

I'd like to think there is a clever reason for this. Maybe you'll get a prize for being the first to spot it. Thanks for the reminder, though - I must get my copy redirected!

Guy

I'm on the side of the wasps. They're quite likely to be among the chief pollinators of your fruit crops, so worth a sting or two if you're not allergic (though wasps are very unaggressive). If you are allergic, a wasp trap is unlikely to protect you. Wasps are the goodies!

Guy