Hi Paul. Just out of interest, were you near my suggested site for those former
Agrodiaetus species? I'm intrigued that like me you saw
ripartii and
r. agenjoi - presumably at the same place as
fulgens. All brilliant butterflies.
Now for the
Erebia ... The second picture casts it in a new light, showing some of the orange on the forewing and apparently a blind, point-like ocellus. It also shows significant scalloping around the margin and reveals clearly that this is a female. That rules out some species, whose females are brightly marked. What does it leave?
Manto? I think not, though with such an incredibly variable species it is difficult to rule it out. But a female with absolutely no orange on the hindwing (so
constans) and apparently extensive orange on the forewing would be anomalous.
Meolans? Again, possible but anomalous. A female without any kind of zoning on the hindwing would be strange. I've seen something a little like it in f.
valesaica but I only have photos of males (
http://www.guypadfield.com/images2011/m ... ica111.jpg -
valesaica on the right,
aethiops on the left). From the first picture I had even wondered about
lefebvrei, as the female of form
astur in Tolman has the same kind of grey scaling. But the altitude and I think the habitat suggests not - and I think you'd have known if you'd seen
lefebvrei. As a radical suggestion, have you considered
epiphron? This is an incredibly variable species in form, size and markings. Some have essentially unmarked hindwing undersides and the hindwings are sometimes quite scalloped. This one was photographed in the Val:
Unfortunately, I haven't got an underside of that individual.
I'm not sure I've left anything out that it could be. The white streaks instead of ocelli suggest it might be aberrant, in which case it might be something different. So, after all that wait, not much help!!
Nice
onopordi. I've never seen that in the Val.
Guy
