Thanks for the advice, Wurzel!
Climb Every Mountain
Over the last few years I've become drawn to our most difficult butterfly fauna to find, observe and record. I'm sure there's some logic in this ... hopefully, that things can only get easier as I get older! If I were to sit down and think about the trip that would be the most testing, then it would be finding the Scottish subspecies of Mountain Ringlet (
Erebia epiphron ssp. scotica), a species that is considered to "only fly in bright sunshine" (more on that, later), that has a very short flight period and that, with regard to this subspecies, is only found in a small number of accessible sites unless you have a predisposition toward mountain climbing. With the delayed start to the 2015 butterfly season, with many species emerging up to 2 weeks later than "normal", then coming up with a date for finding
Erebia epiphron ssp. scotica was, to be frank, a shot in the dark and highly dependent on luck, as much as judgment. To make things even more difficult, a (not insignificant) financial investment was needed to book a flight from Heathrow to Glasgow as early as possible to keep the cost to a minimum. This wouldn't be the first time that I wished I lived north of the border. However, being joined by Mark Colvin rounded off the trip, since we shared a common purpose of not only finding this subspecies, but also taking the opportunity to visit many areas within central Scotland for the best part of a week.
2 days before our trip, we realised that our luck had held out, with the week of 13th July providing largely unsettled weather in our home locations in the south of England (where both Mark and I live) while a band of good weather passed over Scotland. Game on! Arriving early on the Monday morning and with hire car booked, but with the weather forecast in central Scotland changing to "inclement" for the Monday, we decided to head east, taking in Wester Moss (a BC reserve, near Stirling) for Large Heath ssp.
polydama, before heading to St. Cyrus (on the east coast) for Northern Brown Argus ssp.
artaxerxes and Grayling ssp.
scota. Clearly, the gods were against us, since we failed to locate any of our targets (hardly any butterflies at all were seen), but the weather was less than ideal. The only positive was a couple of interesting roadsigns that lifted our spirits; the residents of Dull have a good sense of humour, and the second sign was found during Wimbledon! We eventually checked in at the Killin Hotel (highly recommended!) and, with good weather forecast for the Tuesday, we were raring to go!
Killin is a small village that just 15 minutes from Ben Lawers, a site known for its Mountain Ringlet colony and a site that we would come to know well. Arriving on site at 0830, the weather was pretty cool and overcast. We took some time to take in the site, driving past the reservoir (Loch na Lairige) and getting a feel for the slopes (both above and below the road) that contained vast quantities of Mat Grass (Nardus stricta), the larval foodplant of the Mountain Ringlet.
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After parking up at around 0900, we donned our waterproofs and headed up the slope, taking note of various nectar sources as we went. This included good amounts of Wild Thyme, which was even growing in the cracks in the roadside. At 0920, with a 100% covering of light cloud and with a temperature of just 11.5 degrees, the first Mountain Ringlet was seen. Many butterfly books say that this species only flies in bright sunshine, but this is clearly not the case. Mark and I made a similar observation when we visited Irton Fell in Cumbria for this species in 2014. What we didn't realise, at the time, is that this first individual was aberrant, having significantly-reduced orange patches when compared with its brethren, who we were yet to come face-to-antenna with.
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica - male
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica - male
It wasn’t long before more Mountain Ringlets showed themselves and we estimated that we saw over 50 individuals during the course of the morning (we visited other sites later that day). Only a single female was seen among the males and, despite females being more secretive in nature, this did give us confidence that we had timed the trip to perfection as the adults were clearly still emerging (given the male / female ratio).
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica - female
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica - female
We visited Ben Lawers on subsequent days, moving to other sites (including Glasdrum Wood) to make the most of our trip. As such, we gathered quite a few shots of Mountain Ringlet and were in a position to make some general observations regarding appearance. The formal definition of ssp. scotica suggests that the red spots are more conspicuous and more elongated than ssp. mnemon found in the Lake District. This certainly seemed to be the case since some of the individuals had significant orange/red markings that almost blended with one another. A variety of specimens is shown below, ordered by the amount of orange/red markings.
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica - male
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica - male
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica - male
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica - male
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica - male
I could also have ordered the specimens based on the prominence of the spots in the orange/red markings and, on that note, we found a couple of more aberrations that lacked these spots completely (or almost completely).
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica - male
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica - male
The icing on the cake, however, was when Mark came across a mating pair; a first for both of us and which nicely rounded off this challenging but rewarding trip.
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- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica
![18.jpg (656.79 KiB) Viewed 1231 times Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica on a rock :)](./files/thumb_3_87b7de388730c1f0d6b366931140b446)
- Mountain Ringlet ssp. scotica on a rock :)
Cheers,
- Pete