William

[bugboy]

I have to say your in flight shots are simply spellbinding...

[William]

Cheers, Bugboy - dead chuffed with how they turned out!

BWs,

William

[millerd]

An amazing selection of shots, the Cloudies especially. Brilliant. There are times I wish I lived in Somerset again...

Dave

[William]

Thanks Dave - it ain't half bad down here!

Switzerland - Lycaenids

In July this year, I went to Switzerland for three weeks hiking across the Alps with a friend. Carrying all our own equipment, tents, stoves etc, up and over the mountain passes (1000m ascents every day) was hard work in the heat, but made more than worth it by the butterflies we saw. By camping, we were able to immerse ourselves in suitable habitats, and once the packs were off, spend plenty of time on photography and study of the at times overwhelming variety of species. I haven't compiled a trip report, since we never stayed in one place for more than our over-night camping, but thought I'd share a few photos from a trip that will live long in the memory.

(Many thanks to Guy for all the help with tricky IDs!)

Glandon Blues were one of the definite highlights for me, a butterfly I've searched for in vain many times, it was encountered in small numbers at high altitudes - Cynthia's Frit now takes its place as 'most wanted'!

Glandon Blue

Glandon Blue

Glandon Blue

Glandon Blue

Glandon Blue

Alpine Blues, with the similar groovy underside motif were also around in small numbers.

Alpine Blue

Cranberry Blues were another new one for me - and very smart they were too, seen at a few spots, generally slightly damper ones over about 1600m.

Cranberry Blue

Geranium Argus were also fairly thinly spread, as ever, mooching around large patches of the foodplant.

Geranium Argus

Mazarine was one of the commonest blues (Silver-Studded was strangely absent in a lot of places), 3 photos here of the same one, the pink background in the first is the Jungfrau, which we camped under one night, lit by the last sun of the day.

Mazarine Blue

Mazarine Blue

Mazarine Blue

This cracking Silvery Argus was a real surprise, it stayed strangely loyal to the same patch of grass or several days when we visited Zermatt at the end of the trip, and could be found roosting there each morning, hiding amongst the (not very) Scarce Coppers.

Silvery Argus

Purple-Edged Coppers were just edged out by Sooty as the commonest Copper, but were pretty common in most boggy meadows.

Purple-Edged Copper

Purple-Edged Copper

The aforementioned Sooties were ubiquitous, but by no means unappreciated.

Sooty Copper

Sooty Copper

Equally common, were Small Blues, with their foodplant abounding in the rocky soils at high altitudes.

Small Blue

And finally, why you too should visit the Alps:

Blues

Other Lycaenids that didn't make the final cut here were: Silver-Studded Blue, Idas Blue, Large Blue, Turquoise Blue, Common Blue, Eros Blue, Chapman's Blue, Escher's Blue, Northern Brown Argus, Brown Argus, and Chalkhill Blue.

[MikeOxon]

Lovely atmospheric pics, William and I do agree about the last one. It's a scene that never seems to happen in Britain

Mike

[David M]

Some glorious images there, William. Looks like you had a superb time over there.

I can fill your boots with Cynthia's Fritillary if you wish! We saw many, many dozens in the French Alps in early July.

[Wurzel]

Stunning images William Now how can I persuade Mrs Wurzel that hiking in the Alps would make an ideal family holiday?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Paul Harfield]

Hi William
Just catching up with your recent stuff. Fantastic images as always . I love the inflight Scarce Swallowtail, Clouded Yellow and the Whites. The Glandon Blue on a Lichen covered stone and the Geranium Argus are lovely .
A Holly Blue pupa is a rare sight on these pages

[William]

Thanks chaps, a really great part of the world (more photos to come) - David, I'd love to, but I've already got some stuff in the pipeline for 2017!

Relatively Recent Doings

The season ended well for me, with the local Small Coppers seemingly bouncing back a bit, with plenty of eggs laid in the garden and at other sites. I've noticed that they often seek out rather sickly looking sorrels with red-coloured leaves, does anyone know why this is, unhealthy plants less able to produce toxins? On a trip out in the direction of Birdgwater Bay in a rather speculative search for Clouded Yellow ova (no luck!), I managed to find plenty of adult Small Coppers, as well as a third brood Brown Argus all enjoying the late September sun. I've often noticed the shortage of Sorrels here, and wondered how the site manages to support such good numbers, and after a bit of searching, got my answer - 5 eggs and a well-developed larva on Curled Dock. At the time this was the first time I'd seen/heard of them using this plant, though it's mentioned in Adrian Riley's British and Irish Butterflies.

Small Copper Ova (on a rather sickly plant?)

First Instar Small Copper Larva

Small Copper Ova

Small Copper Ova, Larva and Feeding Damage

Small Copper Ova

Small Copper Ovum on Curled Dock

Small Copper Ovum on Curled Dock

Small Copper Larva on Curled Dock

The adults were looking really fine too!

Small Coppers

More recently, Brown Hairstreak eggs have been the order of the day, I've now found 60 in 19 grid squares, though there are plenty more places to search. I also squeezed in a bonus Purple the other day, though I'm yet to start searching properly for these. It's been interesting to see quite a few of the Brown Hairstreak eggs laid in odd places, with 5 or 6 on the trunk of Blackthorn bushes.

Brown Hairstreak Ovum on Blackthorn Trunk

A couple have also been at the base of young suckers, about 5-10cm off the ground.

Brown Hairstreak ovum at Sucker Base

The vast majority have been in typical positions however, at forks, and where spikes meet the stem.

Brown Hairstreak Ova

Brown Hairstreak Ova

I've also found quite a few Blue-Bordered Carpet Ova while searching - a trap for the unwary!

Blue-Bordered Carpet Ova

And finally the Purple Hairstreak.

Purple Hairstreak Ovum

[Jamie Burston]

Incredible series of macro photos!! I tried to find Small Copper eggs and larva locally, pleased to see you had much better luck! I'm surprised at some of the Brown Hairstreak egg locations, you can't go wrong with Purple Hairstreak

[bugboy]

Great shots, You've an almost identical end of the season as me! As to the older looking leaves used, is it possible these are old eggs laid when the leaf was fresher and have failed to hatch? In my recent observations at Bookham Commons I've watched females go mad laying on tiny plants, peppering the small leaves with eggs. Over time I've observed several young larvae feed on the leaves and watched said leaves deteriorate, but there are also still several unhatched eggs on them (at least on my last visit a few weeks ago). Just speculation obviously

[David M]

Great sequence, William, especially that Small Copper ovum, which shows how intricately designed some of these ova can be.

[William]

Thanks Jamie - I have been too, I've been searching some more atypical Blackthorn (more out of desperation than anything), and was quite surprised by what I found!

That's a possibility I've considered Buggy, but I've seen a couple of egg-laying females seeking out these redder plants (rather than the plants turning red after laying), the photo below is a good example of what I mean, the plant had 6 eggs on, and no larvae - rather more than any others in the vicinity (admittedly it's a nice fresh one in a nice warm scrape, but I've seen red plants in long grass similarly favoured, I'm sure you get the point )

Small Copper Ova

Cheers David - certainly think Small Coppers have the best of the lot!

[bugboy]

I guess it's a case of 'mum knows best'. I had a quick flick through Thomas & Lewington and the suggestion in there is the nitrogen content (and therefore the nutritional value) of the leaves used, the females favouring leaves with a higher nitrogen content.

[William]

Alpine Amble - Fritillaries

I’ve been meaning to post some more photos from Switzerland for a while, but one thing and another has worked to stop me getting round to it. Unlike the lycaenids, the fritillaries didn’t yield any new species for me, but it was nice to re-acquaint myself with old friends in a different context.

My favourite Fritillaries have always been Marshies, and so after the initial heart in mouth moment when I thought I’d found Cynthia’s, I was delighted to catch up with the diminutive locals, termed glaciegenta in this groovy new paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 7/abstract , basically suggesting that in different regions of Europe Marsh Fritillaries partition into a low and high altitude form, and splitting a few of these into new species. For example, in Spain, Euphydryas aurinia beckeri (or Euphydryas beckeri if you prefer) flies at low altitudes, while E. aurinia pyrenes-debilis takes the high ground. Pyrenes-debilis is illustrated as the same thing as glaciegenta in Tolman and Lewington, but apparently they’re quite different on the gene and genital front, having just arrived at the same dwarfism and dark colours by convergent evolution (since they face similar altitude-related problems in the Alps and Pyrenees). Anyway, the gritty little glaciegentas were toughing it out by one of our campsites at 2000m towards the end of the walk, apparently they feed on gentians and fly much later in the year than ours, between June and August depending, like many things in the Alps, on the altitude.

Glaciegenta Marsh Fritillary

Glaciegenta Marsh Fritillary

A variety of other high Alpine species were flying alongside these at our campsite, including Shepherd’s Fritillaries and Mountain Fritillaries, leading to a not unwelcome ID headache, since the two are ones I’ve wanted to get a better look at for quite some time. This ambition extended particularly to female Mountain Fritillaries, which have a unique ice-queen blue suffusion, fortunately one obliged.

Shepherd's Frit

Shepherd's Frit

Mountain Fritillary

Mountain Fritillary

These flew alongside their close, and equally similar-looking relatives, Small Pearl-Bordered and Pearl-Bordered Fritillaries, providing a strange lepidopteran anachronism as I found many mud-puddling companionably alongside Silver-Spotted Skippers and Chalkhill Blues – the ultimate species of heady late summer days on the chalk back here, with the orange emperors of the spring woodlands and meadows – weird!

SPBF

Other classic summer species flying alongside these early emergers were the Argynnis species, High Brown, Silver-Washed, Niobe and Dark Green Fritillaries. Dark Green was the commonest by some distance, blazing around the flowery meadows, and remaining as ever, largely unattainable.
High Brown was encountered only rarely in some of the small woodland clearings, while Niobe was slightly commoner in some of the rockier grasslands towards the end of the trip.

HBF

HBF

Niobe Fritillary

I actually only managed one Silver-Washed Fritillary, nectaring companionably alongside a High Brown in a small meadow on the last day of the walk. Generally speaking, woodland butterflies were the poorest represented of the butterflies on the walk, with no Hairstreaks, White Admiral or Purple Emperor either, probably because we spent most of our time at high altitudes where all the deciduous trees had given way to conifers.
The commonest fritillary from the trip was undoubtedly Titania’s, tending to pop up hand in hand with the Purple-Edged Coppers in the bistort-rich meadows. In previous trips to the Alps, it’s always been joined by the Lesser Marbled Fritillaries (yet another Bistort feeder), yet these were strangely absent this time, and the second most abundant species was the False Heath Fritillary. Other Meliteas clocked up were Spotted, Grisons, Meadow, Heath and Knapweed Fritillaries.

SWF

Titania's Fritillary

Titania's Fritillary

False Heath Frit

Knapweed Frit

Generally, I managed to pick my way through this group and the majority of the ID disasters were saved for Pyrgus (with a handful helpfully set aside for Erebia too, in the interests of fairness), such disasters (I’ve convinced myself), are a natural part of getting to grips with the awe-inspiring variety of butterflies in the Alps, and well worth the effort.

Titania's Fritillary

[Wurzel]

Stunning images William I'd love to have some of those ID headaches

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

I agree - brilliant pictures.

Male shepherd's frit/mountain frit can indeed be a headache (in the Alps, where ssp. palustris of shepherd's frit flies). I only feel really happy identifying them when they are clamped to females. For what it's worth, I'd call mountain for the upperside you've labelled shepherd's, William, but seriously, I wouldn't change the label on that account! Your guess is as good as mine. I love the female mountain - what a beautiful hue. I've seen them from bright, vulgar blue to plain orange, but that one has really lovely gradations of colour.

Guy

[David M]

I love the female mountain - what a beautiful hue.

Agreed. Absolutely a joy when you see one.

[Matsukaze]

These flew alongside their close, and equally similar-looking relatives, Small Pearl-Bordered and Pearl-Bordered Fritillaries, providing a strange lepidopteran anachronism as I found many mud-puddling companionably alongside Silver-Spotted Skippers and Chalkhill Blues – the ultimate species of heady late summer days on the chalk back here, with the orange emperors of the spring woodlands and meadows – weird!

Now wondering if there is somewhere in the Alps where all the UK species can be seen in a single day...

[David M]

Now wondering if there is somewhere in the Alps where all the UK species can be seen in a single day...

That's not quite achievable, but if you went at the optimum time of year and spent a day within a 40km radius of your starting point I reckon you could get close.

Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary would be a notable absentee, whilst I've never seen a Peacock in four years of trying!!