Marseilles and its region 2016

[NickMorgan]

Fantastic pictures Chris (and Colin). I would love to see a Provence Orange Tip one day, but I am never there at the right time of year. Same goes for the Green-underside Blue and many other species. I am sure that I will be able to persuade my wife that we need some early sunshine one year soon, though.

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Nick,

We've got back home to Marseilles after a week in the Drôme département in France.
Here is bit of a catch up on my 2016 check list since a week ago.
SPECIES No. 30 : Short-tailed Blue ( lifer )
Here's a repeat viewing (full identity parade):
Male:

Female:

Pair (female on left):

SPECIES No. 31 : Southern Grizzled Skipper

SPECIES No. 32 : Weaver's Fritillary

SPECIES No. 33 : Brimstone ( usually around Marseilles I only see Cleopatra )
SPECIES No. 34 : Spring Ringlet ( lifer )
A very brief encounter:

SPECIES No. 35 : Small Tortoiseshell ( at 1400 m altitude on the Mont Ventoux )
More to come. This is proving to be a very productive period and I'm having a job keeping up.
Cheers, Chris

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Folks,
Plenty going on down here at the moment in the South of France.
SPECIES No. 36 : Camberwell Beauty ( no photo ). Seen in flight at 650 m ASL and 40 km inland. And I bet no-one will believe me .
SPECIES No. 37 : Small Heath ( photos to come - no rush )
SPECIES No. 38 : Spotted Fritillary - on-time on my lunch-time plot.
SPECIES No. 39 : Glanville Fritillary - lunch-time plot, same as above.
Here is an Orange Tip egg halfway up this Arabis hirsuta plant

A female OT ovipositing on Arabis hirsuta:

A photo of a Black-eyed Blue (unless, of course, its not ):

Glanville Fritillary - A very recent emergence noted today down in the olive grove at work in Vitrolles:

Spotted Fritillary is also on the wing. The Spotted and Glanville Fritillaries are agitated and tricky to photograph.
A Brown Argus

Here is the host plant for the Spanish Festoon, Aristoloche pistoloche

and for the Southern Festoon, Aristoloche rotunda

April 17th - Provence Hairstreak are still flying but are showing signs of wear

.
Cheers, Chris

[Roger Gibbons]

I would believe you have seen Camberwell Beauty, Chris, having seen a couple in Var already. Now, if you said you had seen a Peacock, I think we would have to ask for a photo for verification.

Roger

[Chris Jackson]

I would believe you have seen Camberwell Beauty, Chris, having seen a couple in Var already. Now, if you said you had seen a Peacock, I think we would have to ask for a photo for verification.

Roger

This is where the Camberwell Beauty flew past me, Roger. You know the place, its just before you start climbing up the track to the ..... des Vaches with the river bed on the LH side. Its 'host tree', whichever it is, must be within the vegetation along the river bed, but it is rather dense and impenetrable at this point.

This also adds weight to a sighting I think I had at the end of April 2015 in the hot spot just west of the car park. It was a distant fleeting sighting, and then I told myself "not to be so silly, it couldn't possibly be antiopa," but now I think that that sighting was quite probable.
Cheers, Chris

[Chris Jackson]

South of France

Hi Folks,
A glorious Spring day today at work in Vitrolles with 18°C at lunchtime and a forecast 21°C for the middle of the afternoon.
Species flying today up on the plateau of Vitrolles: Swallowtail, Scarce Swallowtail, Large White, Small White, Lang's STB (1), Long-tailed Blue (1, very worn), Wall Brown, Small Copper, Bath White, Clouded Yellow, Baton Blue, Western Dappled White.
Although Green Hairstreak are flying elsewhere, my workplace colony has already died out this year, probably because the first individuals had already emerged right at the beginning of February.
The extent of the upf discal mark on the Western Dappled White seems to be variable. I almost mistook this one to be a Bath White from a distance it was so large:

Also, Tassel hyacinth in flower:

Cheers, Chris

[Chris Jackson]

Wednesday 20th

Hi Folks,
Today is forecast to be the warmest day of the week in the south of France, before temperatures drop a little for the weekend.
Today, at lunchtime, flying down in the Olive Grove:
cleopatra, megera, crocea, didyma, phlaeas, cinxia, machaon, melanops (first ever sighting in the olive grove), napi, rubi (very faded), agestis, rapae and sinapis (also first sighting in the olive grove).
Female Spotted Fritillary, possibly form meridionalis:

same female undersides:

Glanville Fritillary:

Brown Argus:

Owlflies are on the wing this week; this matches Colin's sightings in the Alpes Maritimes:

The Olive Grove, looking much greener than during the winter:

This place should produce up to 43 species of butterfly over the season, the majority along this 100 metre track.
Cheers, Chris

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Folks,

Yesterday was cool, cloudy and windy in central Southern France. However the occasional glimpse of sunlight brought one or two species out.
SPECIES No. 40 : Marsh Fritillary (on time compared with last year)
SPECIES No. 41 : Red-underwing Skipper
SPECIES No. 42 : Common Blue (appears to be in phase with Colin's sightings)
Marsh Fritillary:

Red-underwing:

Common Blue in mint condition:

Context for the Marsh Frit and Red-underwing:

This is Asphodelus, in flower at the moment:

Cheers, Chris

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Folks,
Temperatures are up to 16°C here today in the South of France. Breezy with occasional clouds.
SPECIES No. 43 : Western Marbled White (M. occitanica)
This species is 1 week earlier than last year:

Context - one of my 2 lunchtime patches:

A Scarce Swallowtail braving the stiff breeze:

Red-underwing Skipper (on time):

Species on the wing today : megera, atalanta, rapae, daplidice, occitanica, machaon, crameri, sertorius, podalirius, phlaeas, pirithous, crocea, baton.
Cheers, Chris

[David M]

Your recent sightings are making me even more envious than usual, Chris. One thing's for sure, in your part of the world 8c with sleet showers simply isn't on the agenda at the end of April.

[Chris Jackson]

...One thing's for sure, in your part of the world 8c with sleet showers simply isn't on the agenda at the end of April.

I understand the UK is having a miserable spring, David.
Take a long weekend break now to the South of France - you only live once. You'll have all next winter to catch up on work or unpaid leave.
Cheers, Chris

[Roger Gibbons]

Maybe a rethink of the week in Var in May, David? Although I have a recollection that you said it wasn't an option because of the July commitments.

I am very conscious that when Chris, Colin and I post about the spring species in the far south of France, it is interesting and at the same time perhaps rather galling when the UK spring is especially bad. But as I mentioned in a recent post, it's not prohibitively expensive to get a cheap flight, hire a car and get cheap accommodation for a week, travelling across the region and visiting some of the hotspots.

Roger

[David M]

I'll be over in France the last week in May, but if I DID have any leave left to take, I'd willingly do so just to escape this abnormally awful period of weather over here. It's the worst I've ever known for late April.

[Chris Jackson]

A little more than 3 weeks to go, David, and you'll be in France with a smile wider than the ..... Pyrennees ?

Thursday 28th April - South of France - overcast and 16°C.
Temperatures are slightly under the seasonal norms this week.

Roger, now here's a coincidence :
After weeks of deciphering very vague indications about how to get to a Spanish Festoon site, I only just discovered it today. It is a 10 minute lunchtime motorbike ride from work. Now that I have my very own rumina site, I shall have to find a different reason to come over and see you in the east Var.
SPECIES No. 45 : Spanish Festoon

Context

Are these plants its LHP ?

SPECIES No. 44 (not in the right order): Spanish Gatekeeper
In the same place as above, I saw my first bathseba of 2016. This is at least 4 weeks earlier than last year (really not normal at all ).
This species should appear when it starts 'warming up', around calendar week 21.

Cheers, Chris

[CFB]

Are these plants its LHP ?

I don't think so Chris, this (Aristolochia pistolochia ?) is the LHP of my Spanish Festoons.

Nice Spanish Gatekeeper. They don't come as far as the Alpes-Maritimes.
--
Colin

[Roger Gibbons]

Bathseba is a special butterfly, is it not? How did you get it to sit still? It might be spreading east as I saw it and occitanica near Draguignan last year for the first time, previously I have had to head toward the centre or west of Var to see either.

I have been given details of a site for baeticus and w-album north of Toulon and plan to tie this in with a trip to Signes (occitanica, sidae, alciphron) maybe one day of the weekend of 14/15 May depending on the meteo. If you would to join us, let me know if either or both of those dates is OK for you.

Roger

[Chris Jackson]

Hello Roger,
Bathseba and occitanica are not uncommon in the Bouches du Rhone. I am reasonably familiar with both of them at lunchtime at work in Vitrolles, and at home in Marseilles in the Parc des Bruyères. They are both reliable : guaranteed sightings, although they form part of those species, to my mind, which are influenced by early / later seasonal conditions. Emergence can vary by + / - 3 weeks.
Bathseba's flight period is normally later and should correspond to that late spring / early summer period (calendar week 21) where the temperature 'sets in'.
For me it is one of the species that anounces the start of the hot period in the South of France.
However, my first sighting today this year, so early, leaves me perplex.
In a reasonably short time it should be quite possible to get a full set of decent photos of male / female uppers / unders.
Today's photo was relatively easy because of overcast conditions and because frankly I think this individual should not have emerged so early.

As for baeticus and w-album north of Toulon + a trip to Signes (occitanica, sidae, alciphron) the weekend of 14/15 May, we are free and totally enthusiastic for one or both days !! + Picnic here we come !! This is what butterflying should be about. (Be forewarned, Veronique may give us a rendition of her Gospel songs - her new hobby horse )
Keep me informed, these species are a MUST.
Chris

[Roger Gibbons]

Let's check the meteo nearer the time re 14 or 15 May (both days not an option for me as I'm expected - quite unreasonably - to do non-butterfly things from to time).

Roger

[Chris Jackson]

.... this (Aristolochia pistolochia ?) is the LHP of my Spanish Festoons .... Colin

Thanks for the plant ID photos Colin.
Now that I have identified this rumina site, I will pay more attention during my next visit to the LHP and will keep you informed.
Cheers, Chris

[Chris Jackson]

Colin,
I have found Aristoloche pistoloche on my new Spanish Festoon site. The plants here in the dry scrub seem to be stunted compared with yours in the lush Alpes Maritimes and so are more difficult to see.

The weather is variable this weekend in Marseilles - today rain and tomorrow the Mistral wind. Fortunately yesterday I had a day off work and managed to get out and tick off two sightings for 2016.
SPECIES No. 46 : Pearl-bordered Fritillary
SPECIES No. 47 : Green-underside Blue

Cheers, Chris