Savoie - ID confirmation needed please

[Sylvie_h]

I think this is a Scotch Argus but I am not 100% sure. It was photographed in the Massif des Beauges in Savoie. Can one of the experts confirm please? Sorry for the quality of the picture but with the heat, it was very active…. And only managed to get the underside before it flew off far away.
Thank you so much,
Sylvie

[Roger Gibbons]

Hi Sylvie,

It looks spot-on for female Scotch Aregus to me.

Roger

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Sylvie,
I'm not an expert but it certainly looks like the E. aethiops I photographed last week near Les Menuires.
I like that 3-layered chocolate/cream cake appearance.
Here is mine at St Martin des Bellevilles at around 1450 m altitude.
As I am lacking in experience with Erebia sp., I find it is particularly useful to carefully note geographical region and altitude in order to eliminate any unlikely cadidates from my attempts at ID.

We may have been on holiday close to each other, then.
Chris

[David M]

That silvery flash on the hindwings has aethiops written all over it. Right time of year too.

[Sylvie_h]

Roger, Chris and David, thank you very much for confirming. I will be posting more pictures of Fritillaries soon.
Chris, we could have bumped into one another.... I did the Beauges, Belledonne and some lower altitude in the Savoie and the Rhone.
The Beauges massif is limestone so it tends to have more diversity in terms of butterflies than the Belledonne.
Sylvie