South East Spain / April 2016

[Sylvie_h]

10 days in the South East corner of Spain in early April yielded a good number of butterflies and some I had never expected to find. Weather was sunny for most days and the best time to photograph was in the morning as the wind picked up from noon making photography practically impossible after lunch. We had one day where the temperature dropped to 10 degrees with a strong northerly wind and cloudy sky (no butterfly on this day).
On the first day we were out in the field, I found Sooty Orange Tip. The butterfly was flying fast and I thought it was a female clouded yellow (having already seen the males in good numbers ) but was not sure. When it finally landed, I looked through my binoculars and I saw the orange spot and black tip on the wing which is unmistakable. After 2 visits to the same place, we found quite a large population (30+) spread over 2kms. They seemed to have a preferred spot where the foodplant (Hoary Mustard) was the most abundant for nectaring but also for resting (when the wind was particularly strong in the afternoon). I would have liked to see a female ovipositing but it did not happen unfortunately.

Sooty Orange Tip Underside

Sooty Orange Tip

Green striped White was found only in 2 places : on the edge of a village (on a waste ground field) and at the same place as the SOT, they were not as common as the book seems to suggest and where we found it , it was only in very small numbers. The butterfly is restless and difficult to approach. But when the sky covered up, the butterfly would rest on a grass stem with its wings tightly closed low on the ground making it quite inconspicuous (I understand now the function of these stripes).

Green Striped White

Green Striped White

I am going through my pictures rather slowly but will carry on with the report soon as there are more to come.
Sylvie

[Chris Jackson]

A great start Sylvie with a couple of unusual species.
Those markings are so original.
I dare not imagine what else you've got up your sleeve
Chris

[Padfield]

Sooty orange tip is a great butterfly to find. I've been to South East Spain early in the year - usually earlier than you - several times without running into it.

I look forward to the rest.

Guy

[David M]

Excellent stuff, Sylvie!

These are butterfly species we rarely see on UKB. Hope the rest of your trip was similarly productive.

[Sylvie_h]

Thank you Chris, Guy and David for your comments . I am not sure whether it was luck or the right time of the year to find the SOT. We did not expect to find it because we were not looking for it....

Common Tiger blue was locally abundant near the coast. Always found on or to the close proximity of its foodplant , Ziziphus Lotus. Every time we came across a Lotus, it had its own population and some with quite large numbers, especially those situated in sheltered places. The butterfly is very small and resembles its cousin of the eastern parts of Europe the Little Tiger Blue.

Common Tiger Blue cropped

CTBlue_cropped.jpg (50.53 KiB) Viewed 743 times

Common Tiger Blue

Common Tiger Blue cropped

Common blues were plentiful but I could only see the form Celina which is the form found in the South of Europe.

Common Blue f Celina cropped

Black Eyed Blues were feeding on French Lavender and thyme.

Black Eyed Blue

More to follow.
Sylvie

[Sylvie_h]

Spanish Gatekeepers were seen in good numbers but near the coast only. The butterflies are difficult to photograph, they seem to rest low on the ground in the cover of rocks or vegetation with their wings closed and very often in the shade.

Spanish Marbled Whites were flying but very difficult to approach. They are very powerful flyers. This is the only decent picture I manage to get (it has been cropped).

Other species seen and recorded:
Clouded Yellow,
Painted Lady,
Green Underside Blue,
Large White,
Small White,
Small Copper,
Brown Argus,
Wall,
Speckled Wood,
Lang’s Short Tailed Blue,
Swallowtail,
Bath White,

I am still in the process of identifying and will post some more soon.
Sylvie

[NickMorgan]

Wow, what a great selection of butterflies. I love the Common Tiger Blue. You have managed to see a lot of species that have eluded me on my visits. I hope I have as much luck as you when we go to Spain in July.

[Chris Jackson]

That Common Tiger Blue has great markings, Sylvie. The Spanish Gatekeeper does extend into France as far as Marseilles.
How many of these species are lifers for you or were you already familiar with them ?
Cheers, Chris

[Sylvie_h]

Hi Chris,
The new species for me were the Sooty Orange Tip, Common Tiger Blue and Spanish Gatekeeper. I found the Common Tiger Blue to be very similar to the Little Tiger Blue which I had seen in Greece and Turkey, it is hard to see the difference. Although it is also recorded in France, I had never seen the Spanish Gatekeeper before. I believe you see it very often where you are and you are lucky to live in such a nice area with a lot of different species.

Hi Nick,
I have never visited Spain in July and I am not sure where you are headed, but I would be interested to know what you found there when you go.

I am having problems with the identification of these 3 butterflies and I think there are:
iMG 1 : Clouded Yellow?
IMG 2 : Common Blue or Adonis?
IMG 3 : Common BLue or Adonis?

Can anyone help with these ? I don't have any photographs showing the upperside wings unfortunately...
All taken in the same trip.

Sylvie

[Chris Jackson]

Hello Sylvie,
Regarding your "cloudie", I would say that it is a Clouded Yellow female form 'helice'.
I have circled an area on your photo. By transparency, we can see that there is a clear patch - this means it is a female Colias .... Secondly the clear patch is closed in (hemmed in) by a well defined dark shadow - this means it is crocea. With alfacariensis it is not totally hemmed in / the dark shadow is not well defined. Then, given the pale colouring, I would expect it to be form helice.

Scroll down to my alfacariensis and crocea images here :
https://sites.google.com/site/mespapill ... s-pieridae

With Adonis Blue, I would expect to see some black chequering on the fringes which I can't really see here.

Good luck,
Chris

[Sylvie_h]

Hi Chris,

Thank you for this ! I think you're right about the clouded yellow being a female f. Helice, this is what I had assumed first but knowing that Pale clouded yellow and Berger's clouded yellow are in the area, I was not sure, your description is useful and I will remember this for next time, it's incredible the things you can learn from this site.
Regarding the 2 'blues', it was a hot day and the butterflies were not opening their wings unfortunately. This group is a nightmare for me in terms of identification (like the pyrgus) especially when there isn't much difference between 2 species....
Sylvie

[Padfield]

Hi Sylvie. I agree with Chris for helice. For the blues, the two-tone fringe, darker inside, says icarus.

Guy

[Sylvie_h]

Thank you Guy for your reply.
Sylvie

[NickMorgan]

Hi Chris,

Hi Nick,
I have never visited Spain in July and I am not sure where you are headed, but I would be interested to know what you found there when you go.

Sylvie

Sylvie,
We are going back to a villa about 45 km north west of Malaga. Not a great area for butterflies at that time of year as it is quite parched by then. However, I will certainly be making a pilgrimage to the Sierra Nevada, where I had an amazing day two years ago.