I'll take back what I said in my previous post, David, there are Sage Skipper breeding sites
Saturday 22nd August
Today I journeyed inland and upland into the Var and checked out what was flying near the mountain of Sainte Baume.
Here is a list of the species I could confirm :
agestis, statilinus, proto, fidia, icarus, pamphilus, comma, hispanus, phlaeas, adippe, dolus (in dwindling numbers), didyma, athalia, megera, alfacariensis, dia, jurtina, cardui, escheri ?, crocea, alceae, baton, circe, machaon, cleopatra, boeticus, tages, rapae, paphia, fagi, pirithous, sinapis, reducta, semele
(ratio of statilinus to fidia: 10 to 1). Relatively low numbers of
fidia this year it seems.
However, there were some skippers and blues I'm unsure of. Any suggestions for ID would be welcome.
Blue 1 (escheri ?)
Blue 2 ?
Blue 3 (escheri or Chapman's ?)
Skipper 2
proto ?
Skipper 3 uppers
proto ?
Skipper 3 unders
Skipper 4 uppers
proto ? (these colours were for real)
Skipper 4 unders
This skipper was from near my work in Vitrolles during the week:
Skipper 1 (P.S.: I'm now pretty sure its Red Underwing)
And just for the pleasure, a Long-tailed Blue, hoping that you will get an influx in the UK shortly.
Cheers, Chris