Sightings - South Of France Part 1

[kevling]

My family and I were lucky enough to holiday in the South of France this year, staying outside Monaco and Cannes respectively.
Although not a butterflying holiday, good behavior and brownie points on my part did bring some opportunities for several close encounters. Although I cannot compete with David M's trip report, I did manage some exciting firsts during the fortnight.
Being a relative virgin to mainland European Butterflies, I was armed with Tristan LaFranchis' field guide whilst there, combined with Guy Padfield & Roger Gibbons excellent websites when I returned.However, I am still stumped on a quite a few so apologise in advance for any mistaken identities and subsequent requests. "It is better to have tried and failed, than to have not tried at all.
I will categorize my trip by location as opposed to species.

Eze (Monaco)
Location for our first week was up in the hills overlooking the Med. The coastal areas of the Cote d'azur can be devoid of large quantities of butterflies in the peak of summer and with no rain in 2 months the nearby woodland and scrub were parched in the intense heat. However, I found that a walk at breakfast time and early evening did yield some nice Butterflies.

Base for our first week

First sighting of the year was a Gatekeeper. Following inspection of it's underside it was identified as cecilia, Southern Gatekeeper.

After a fruitless search for Walls in my native Suffolk this year, it was nice to see these in good numbers

Scarce Swallowtail were seen in good numbers throughout my holiday, in contrast to papilio machaon of which only one was seen.

Finally for our first base, what I believe to be a Holly Blue

There is still lots to come, which I hope to upload in due course

Regards Kev Ling

[Chris Jackson]

A good start, Kev. I confirm that the ratio of Scarce versus regular Swallowtails down here this year is quite high, I may even stick my neck out and suggest 10 Scarce to 1 regular in some places. Looking forward to more.
Cheers, Chris

[Roger Gibbons]

Kev, You could actually tell that your gatekeeper is a male cecilia because the upf brown androconial patch is transected by the orange veins, and this is not so for Gatekeeper (P.tithonus).

Roger

[Charles Nicol]

very nice pics Kev !

i have only seen one regular Swallowtail in 4 weeks, compared to 20 or so "Scarce"

[kevling]

Chris/Charles; It is interesting to hear the ratios of Swallowtails are the same across the region. I thought I was just being unlucky with the regulars.

Roger; Thanks for tip on Gatekeepers. It's so obvious once you know

Regards Kev