Alpes Maritimes

[Tony Moore]

I've just returned from the French Alps, where I more or less followed the footsteps of David Moore, whom I have to thank for many pointers to good spots. Unfortunately, I don't have his expertise and although I saw around 100 species, I'm sure many others were missed through simply not knowing what I was looking at . I would be grateful for an opinion on the following butterflies, which are all 'not sures' or ' not the foggiest'. I'll post in two lots:

Thanks in advance,

Tony M.

[Tony Moore]

The last five - sorry about the crap photo of the 'Ringlet?', it was a long way away...

Tony M.

[Padfield]

Hi Tony.

The first two pictures (in your first post) show Aricia sp. If the altitude allows, I'd go for agestis from the wing shape - but if you were too high for that, then artaxerxes. These two are very difficult to separate from the underside alone.

The Pyrgus looks good for carthami in everything except the cell marking. I think it probably is carthami - with the proviso that I've never seen sidae myself and cannot actually discount it without an underside.

For the next two blues I'd go for escheri and argus. The last blue in that post is coridon I think - though my own experience of hispanus is too limited to rule that out definitively.

The first blue in the next post is baton. The next is a bit of a mystery. I think it has to be subgenus Lysandra, despite the apparent lack of a cell spot, and seems to be a female. I'd go for bellargus, f. ceronus.

I'm not at all sure about the Erebia. Aethiops seems as good a call as any, though it is different from those near me.

THe next Pyrgus I'm just not sure about. Maybe serratulae - maybe not!

The last blue is baton again.

Guy

[Tony Moore]

Many thanks, Guy,

The Aricia species were at about 1100m and in flowery meadows so perhaps agestis is the more likely. I had the next two down as you suggest, but the argus fooled me completely. I guess I don't want to see UK species! The last 'Blue' was very pale in flight and I was hoping for something a bit more exotic .

Here is another photo of the mystery:

At first I assumed it was a blue female icarus, but then noticed the absence of cell spot. I believe that f. ceronus has been seen in the locality, so a good possibility. I wasn't sure about the Batons as they were much paler than the ones I had seen in Bulgaria - thanks for the confirmation. I'll post a full report in my PD.

Tony.