Great stuff James! The woodlands of the Cote d'Or must be one of the best places to see Woodland Brown. They were flying in their hundreds at a good few sites when I visited. It would be interesting to know why they are so abundant here, and yet so scarce in most of the rest of France - presumably a...

Well done with Blind Ringlet David! That's a nice addition - I have never seen it in PACA, although I did see it many years ago (2001) in Haute Savoie. It is a species of which I really need to get a decent photo. I am waiting with bated breath for your Pyrgus selection - did he/didn't he see warren...

Ha! I am sure I recognise that male Asian Fritillary Roger! Lovely shot. And your Spanish Purple Hairstreak is gorgeous - I have only ever seen one, 15 years ago in the Picos de Europa. David - there is definitely merit in heading further north in the Alps towards Savoie - some good stuff to be had ...

I certainly understand your excitement regarding Asian Fritillary Roger! As you know, we were at the same site a few days before you, where I got my life-tick for this beauty. I have been looking at my only photo of a female Asian Frit from our visit to see if it might have been the same insect that...

Hi David,

Female Alpine Blues are lovely aren't they! In fact Alpine Blues are just delightful all round - especially their underside. Glandon are also one of my favourites.

I
Your photo of the male Damon Blue looks remarkably like a Silvery Argus to me

It's a similar story from central Lincolnshire - White Admiral, Purple Emperor and Purple Hairstreak all having a great year, although it feels like the grass-feeding skippers and satyrids are around in significantly lower numbers than usual at most sites. Vegetation at many sites is scorched off. M...

Hi David, That Purple-edged Copper with pale hindwings is very unusual! The lack of coppers out there during our trip was also very noticeable. In fact we only saw a single male Scarce Copper, a couple of Sooty, and just two Purple-shot females. The higher altitude sites where usually many coppers c...

My wife and I have just returned from a twelve night "grand tour" of the French Alps. We set off from Nice on 1st July and headed north, with our ultimate destination being the Parc National de la Vanoise. This is further north than we have ventured before, and the idea behind the holiday ...

David, the Queyras is probably my favourite place in France! I look forward to seeing how you got on there...

Looks like a tatty alcetas to me David. Whereabouts are you and what altitude? It was fairly frequent along the famous track by the Hostellerie de Stephane when I visited end May/early June a couple of years back!

Fabulous, Kip! Love the Acmon Blue and Boisduval's Blue, and that Arrowhead Blue is absolutely divine.
Again, you can see many similarities with certain European counterparts, and yet divergence also.
Absolutely fascinating stuff - thanks for sharing these.

Wow Kip - that Weidermeyer's Admiral is just out of this world! Fabulous shot and what a gorgeous creature! I am always intrigued by the similarities between many US species and their European relatives, and what it means in terms of evolutionary timescales and continental drift - would love to visi...

A Scarce Tortoiseshell photographed at Stoke Goldington, Buckinghamshire on 16th June by Judith Barnard. Reported on twitter https://twitter.com/BarnardJudith/status/1008270805904646144/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ukbutterflies.co.uk%2Flatest_updates.php Vince Great sig...

Thanks for your kind comments folks.

Charles, France is indeed a fantastic country for butterflies, and there are still many areas that I have yet to visit!

Essex, you are not wrong about Scarce Frits! They are simply stunning creatures! A shame that they have become so rare now in France...

PART TWO I had been very lucky with the weather, avoiding almost all of the predicted thunderstorms and downpours, and had seen and photographed my four main target species within the first half of my week here. I spent the second half of my visit meandering through woodlands, meadows and across li...

PART ONE I have just returned from a fantastic week in the Burgundy region of France, an area that I have never previously visited. This was a solo trip, planned last year, with the main objective of seeing three of France's rarest fritillaries, namely Scarce, Bog, and Nickerl's Fritillary, with th...

Just back from a tremendous few days down in sunny Cornwall. Big thanks to John Chapple and Paul Browning for great company and help whilst locating Grizzled Skippers in a wide variety of forms! This one is pretty standard: Grizzled Skipper.JPG The two intermedia below are lovely insects: Grizzled S...

Superb work with the chrysalids, Pete! What an attractive stage that is and I congratulate you for having the patience to both find and photograph them. Thanks David! They really are quite beautiful aren't they? It was a rare pleasure to find so many; this is very unusual, and I do have to ask myse...

Marsh Fritillaries in central Lincolnshire have been well behind schedule so far this year, but given good weather over the next week or so, they may be heading for a particularly good season. Larvae have been numerous this spring, and today I found more wild pupae than I have ever seen before! This...

Fingers crossed for that, David! One advantage of now being retired is that I can make the most of any windows of half-decent weather. Conversely, having the freedom to do so, but being denied opportunities for butterflying, due to day after day of poor weather, is incredibly frustrating! I am sure ...