France,Switzerland,Italy late 2016.

[Padfield]

Hi Russ. My best bet for your skipper is armoricanus, subject to all the usual caveats. In Switzerland I've found this flying well into September. Never October yet, but then again, I don't tend to visit the sites where it flies in October.

Guy

[LancsRover]

Hi Guy, thanks for the skipper ID, I thought it must be armoricanus due to the late flight season into October.
I'm in Switzerland at the moment(Ottenbach, Nr. Zurich) but my reports are still for Garda, Italy.
I came across probably another armorcanus on the 7th October in Garda in roughly the same area(olive groves) some 6km from Salo, photo below.
Thanks again Guy,
Russ.

[LancsRover]

6th October 2016, sunny 18c Castello and Pieve, two small villages south of SALO, Garda, Italy.

A quick tour in the van to the area nr. Castello, where we found the Bath White, again I found another BW, this one looked in good condition but the "keyholes" on the up hind wing had faded or had never been there at all??(see photo).

We continued to a nature reserve on the coast but the roads were too narrow for the van but we did manage a few butterflies from a field next to a car park close by, including an old Queen of Spain.

Russ

[LancsRover]

Friday 7th Oct. 2016 Olive groves south of Salo.

My last visit and report from Italy, a cycle ride to the olive groves.

A few photo's from the "groves" showing that although this is a great place for butterflies, it is still somebodies land and livelihood. This must happen year after year and all the butterflies seem to work around humans and nature.

Even after the "cut" I still found today, Blues, Walls, Small Heath, Small Whites, Red Admirals, Grizzled Skipper, Speckled Woods and Geranium Bronze.

Photo's to follow

Russ

[LancsRover]

Photo's from last report (7.10.16)

[NickMorgan]

Hi Russ,
It is sad to see wild flowers cut down like that, particularly when butterflies are still active and feeding from them. Hopefully there are sufficient flowers nearby for them. I also think about any caterpillars or chrysalis that could be in amongst the vegetation.
I recently cut an area of rank grassland at our property that hadn't been cut for at least four years. It was interesting to see how many hawthorn and willow trees were starting to grow there and the grass had become very thick, potentially smothering out any wild flowers. I was very conscious of what could be living in there, but at least the flowers were finished and the butterflies had stopped flying. I have left some other areas uncut. In future years I would either like to cut the area for hay, or graze it, which I think will help the wild flowers to establish more.
I imagine that if the olive growers didn't cut the vegetation below their trees then it would end up as a thick thatch of grass or shrubs. Possibly they are maintaining the wild flowers by what they are doing. It seems much better than in Spain where they rotovate the ground under the orange and olive trees.

[Padfield]

That's exactly how all the best butterfly meadows I know are maintained! Once a year, they are scythed, usually by machine. Ideally, the cut grass is left a few days to dry, then collected. I kept a butterfly meadow by my last house and did precisely this - and my garden list tallied 64 species.

Guy

[LancsRover]

Hi Nick and Guy, thank you both for your interest/comments, I think the farmers must do a "cut" every year to enable them to lay nets/sheets down to collect the olives.
It must not worry the butterflies with the amount and variety I saw in the area in the short period of time I was there.
So everything seems to be working fine for man and butterfly be it by accident or not.
A couple more pics. on the matter, attached.

Cheers Russ

[LancsRover]

Monday 10th October 2016. Sunny 15c, with a little cool wind.
Cugnasco Switzerland, between Locarno and Bellinzona.

A walk from our camp site(I stopped here on my way down to Garda, 4 weeks ago), quite a pleasant day after all the rain yesterday.
We didn't start our walk until 2pm, to give the paths and fields time to dry out a little.
There has been a little "cutting" going on here too since we were last here, see pics. below, the little stream had plenty of butterflies and dragonflies flying 4 weeks ago but nothing today, they have obviously used machines for the stream banks but an elderly man was still using an old sythe in the high reed nearby.
We continued our walk towards the wild buddleias bushes under a large pylon, but they had also been cleared, by the electricity company I presume. Here I'd seen 10+ varieties of butterflies but no doubt they will grow again next year.
We continued down towards the river where we came across a field with plenty of wild flowers still in bloom and with plenty of butterflies and a few dragonflies still flying.
The butterflies included;
Common Blues, both fresh and some battered,
Small Coppers fighting the blues for the best flowers,
Geranium Bronze,
Small Whites,
Clouded Yellows(8+),
Red Admiral,
Painted Lady(in the worst condition I've ever seen, but it is 10th October)
Speckled Wood in the bushes
and a Migrant Hawker,
a spotted lizard,
and scores of black and orange "shield" bugs??
So I was a happy bunny,
I didn't expect to see anything really.

Photo's to follow.

Russ

[LancsRover]

Photo's from last report(10.10.16.)

[LancsRover]

More pics from 10.10.16.

[Chris Jackson]

Monday 10th October 2016
......... and scores of black and orange "shield" bugs??......
Russ

Hi Russ,
These shield bugs higher up could be Graphosoma lineatum, a species of shield bug in the family Pentatomidae. It is also known as the Italian Striped-Bug and Minstrel Bug.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphosoma_lineatum

A nicely balanced shot of the Geranium Bronze. I have not as yet managed to get a perfect open-winged shot myself.
Cheers, Chris

[LancsRover]

Hi Chris, thanks very much for the comment and info. on the shield bugs, I know you have a keen interest in these bugs.
While we were in Garda the "green" shield bugs were all over our camp site, we even had a couple in our van, which I carefully escorted outside.
Glad you like the G.Bronze shot, they are so small.

Cheers Russ

[LancsRover]

Wednesday 12th October 2016,

Ottenbach, Switzerland, sunny, 12c.

Still on my way home through Switzerland, we had 2 nights at Ottenbach next to the river Reuss, as we did on our way down to Garda some 4 weeks ago.
We went out on our bikes along the cycle track close to the river and through the freshly cut meadows, which still had plenty of wild flowers for our friends to nectar on
It looked like it had been pretty dry here whilst we had been in Italy, the river was low and the pond near the cycle track had almost disappeared but the herons and a great egret were still around.
Butterflies (and others) still flying included:
Numerous whites, Small and Green-veined,
quite a few Clouded Yellows,
one tired Comma,
a few dragonflies,
a hoverfly(?),
and Banded-Demoiselle in the stream near our campsite, so a nice end to our last day "butterflying" of our trip.

Russ
Photo's to follow.

[LancsRover]

photo's from last report,
Russ

[Paul Wetton]

Your Hoverfly looks like a Sphaerophoria scripta male.

[LancsRover]

Thanks Paul for that, I'll look it up,
Cheers Russ

[LancsRover]

More pics. from my last report(internet to slow yesterday in North-East England, campsite near Embleton)
Russ

[LancsRover]

Last pics from 12.10.2016.
Cheers Russ