I was just reading your diary, Guy, about the Poplar Admiral (couldn’t someone give it a more majestic name?). The one I watched for some 30 minutes covered about 400m of the mountain road (calling it a road is a bit of an overstatement) leading up to the Col des Champs in a fabulous display of powe...

As I mentioned on my June competition entry, high altitude species are very thin on the ground at the moment and hopefully this is only because their season is a couple of weeks later than usual. However, there was one big thrill at the end of an otherwise disappointing day today – a Poplar Admiral,...

I’m sitting here in a hotel room somewhere in the Haut Verdon and wondering where all the high altitude species are, but I’ve just found a wifi network, so here’s my entry (just in time, I hope) for the June competition. This male Queen of Spain Fritillary was very small and very dark, the darkest I...

Talking of Nettle Tree butterflies, I mentioned that I had only ever seen them in ones or twos, and not very often. I visited one of my favourite sites here in Var (southern France) a few days ago (it’s the one you visited, Guy) and counted them into double figures, so clearly June is the best month...

I saw only a couple of Provence Hairstreaks, and only at one site. They are very hard to find, even in this part of the world. I was told about a site (in strictest confidence) but I have never seen them there, and then chanced upon the one site where I have seen them, and there were only two there....

Amanda’s Blue (polyommatus amandus). Photo taken 20 May 2008. This is quite large, about the size of a Large Blue. The male upperside has a bright grey-blue colour, often (usually) with dark marginal bands on the forewing. This male is roosting for the night on its larval foodplant Tufted Vetch (vic...

To respond to Sylvie’s question: we are just north of the seaside town of St Aygulf, not far from the Lac de St Cassien. There is a huge undeveloped expanse stretching from Grasse in the East across to Aubagne in the West and it is quite similar terrain throughout, especially north of the A8 motorwa...

Here's one I saw a couple of weeks ago in the Alpes Maritimes at an altitude of 1000m.

Hello everyone, I’ve been down in Var in the far south of France since 9 April and the weather, which is usually wall-to-wall sunshine at a steady 25C at this time of year, has been very unsettled with more rain already than we usually get in a whole summer. The butterflies were very slow to get goi...

Bearing in mind the date, and the recent discussions on Photoshop manipulations, it would be surprising NOT to see something like this posted!

Congrats to the winner. Must check shots for obscuring leaves in future!

Guy's shot reminded me that I nearly entered this one:

Hi Martin, It was nice to meet you, too, and (like Saturday before last at Pete's excellent workshop) put faces to names. Sorry you couldn't make it, Mike. The next presentation on UK hairstreaks by Andrew Middleton was very good, with some terrific video footage of each species. Some friends of our...

It is indeed a stunning photo, the type which wins photographic competitions. So no doubt everyone's entries in forthcoming competitions will be covered in dewdrops!

I suspect it's actually a female common blue rather than a brown argus. I think this question has been raised before on this site.

In this Guardian article, #5 in the thumbnail series doesn't look much like a grizzled skipper (pyrgus malvae) to me. If I had to guess (always unwise where pyrgus are concerned) I'd go for olive skipper (P. serratulae) which of course does not occur in the UK.

Over to you, Guy.

I seem to recall the architect was honoured by BC at last November's AGM. I guess they should know best whether he is a serious conservationist or a commercial cowboy. This was on the BC site:

http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/a ... _m25_.html

This nostalgia trip and the mention of W S Coleman prompted me to have another look at my hardback copy which appears to be an 1893 original. It mentions that a “paperback” version is available, price one shilling. Some of the common names are interesting: Holly blue was Azure blue Small/Little blue...

Here's the Orange tip page:

Roger

I've scanned (not very well) a few pages.

The Camberwell beauty could be real.

Roger

Thanks for the info.

I have a vague recollection that there was a million-pound question on "who wants to be a millionaire" along the lines of "which of these is not a moth" with speckled wood being one of the options. I might even have got that one.

The Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch of Butterfly Conservation Spring Meeting will be held on Saturday 15 March. There are three presentations, one from me on the Butterflies of Southern France (with 80 images, a good number of which are of butterflies that are rarities in the UK), one by Andrew...