About three years ago, I got the following email which seems to relate to this topic. The first of the two links is not very interesting, even if I could read Swedish, but the second (psigate) link may be of interest. I don’t think the topic is restricted to M. daphnis , as it seems to apply to all ...

This is something I’ve wondered about. Having seen quite a few papilionidae (festoons) at the end of their flight periods, they seem to lose their red and blue scales more easily than other scales. Here’s a photo of an aged Southern Festoon ( zerynthia polyxena ) that gives no indication that it eve...

The three southern small whites keep a respectful distance behind the king. A black-veined white is in the background.

Denise makes a good point. Until 1998 I used to record everything in a notebook but then my car got broken into near Salisbury and everything was stolen including the notebook. Must have fetched a good price. So I got another notebook and everything was fine until 2002 when someone (who cannot be na...

The niobe eris underside is the most fantastic mix of beige and orange markings – here’s one from my local patch (in southern Var) with delicate black edging to the beige markings. The books tell you to look for the black spot within the unh small beige basal patch as being indicative of niobe , but...

I’m glad I’m not the only one who finds that niobe and aglaja can be confusing. The books usually group niobe and adippe together on the same page, but even though adippe can also be very lightly marked, they are easy to separate with a good sight of the forewing curvature, with aglaja on a differen...

Guy,

The last category is a bit broad.

Maybe it should be narrowed down to "Butterflies and black and white border collies called Asha, in the Swiss mountains."

I bet someone else would still find a way to submit an entry.


Roger

Hi Matzukaze, Much of the far north-east of France is heavily agriculturalized, as you say, and it seems as if the first 150km going south from Calais is through farmland (not very encouraging for anyone on their first trip to France, I agree!), but there are large green areas on the map after that,...

It sounds like a great trip to Bulgaria. I’m not trying to put in a plug for France, but 99 of the 107 species seen are likely to be encountered (most quite easily) in France, which has something like 240 mainland species (and a few more endemic to Corsica). My species count, albeit over a six month...

Pete, Here are some images you're welcome to use if they meet your criteria. I have my doubts about the Arran Brown inclusion. The historical evidence is shaky, to say the least. The female Scotch Argus can look confusingly like an Arran Brown - I have seen some in eastern France at sea level lookin...

I’ve just caught up on Wednesday’s Nature of Britain. It’s a great series and anything that gets the apathetic British general public alerted to the fact that the countryside is rapidly disappearing, has got to be applauded. However, am I alone in finding Alan Titchmarsh’s commentary rather misleadi...

A plain old clouded yellow, always a special butterfly, photographed this summer (the rules say in the month of the competition, but I guess that's relaxed in December).

I watched Wednesday's edition Nature of Britain via the catch-up service on NTL/Virgin cable (via TV Guide), which seems to stay live for a week, so if anyone missed it and has (NTL) cable, it's still possible to see it.

Roger

Paul, The area that Sylvie describes is quite near where I spend April to October. As she says, there is such a large number of species, it is impossible to get bored. I have seen Camberwell beauties (unusually two or three at one particular site), Large tortoiseshells, and Southern festoons at a si...

Hi Sylvie, I use a Canon D20 with a Sigma 150mm lens. I know little about the mechanics of photography (so I’ll avoid making comments that make this obvious!), but there are plenty of photography experts who contribute to the forums. I had a Sigma 105mm lens which I used with a Canon 500 film camera...

They are very similar, but there's no doubt Guy is right. I put valesina on the pandora page for direct comparison, as below (enlargements at bottom of page).

http://www.butterfliesoffrance.com/html ... andora.htm

Registering interest. Great idea. Definitely keen but it depends on date and location (preferably near to M4 or M3 for those of us who have to travel from north of London).

Roger

Esculi occurs in thousands in southern Var, but always a clear brown ground colour - I've never seen them looking even slightly green, but in different localities.... where did you see them? Are you sure this is not an ageing effect or camera angle? Did they look green when viewed not through the le...

I'm planning to spend a few days in the Picos de Europa, probably about the second week in July, so any advice you can give would be very welcome.

I also plan to spend a few days in the Ordesa National Park on the way.

For me, the spring and summer in southern France yielded 175 species (of which six were only seen in Switzerland), and 16 of them were life-ticks, which are now becoming increasingly difficult to find. The highlights? Of the many, I would select the southern comma (polygonia egea) I saw in the Alpes...