Austrian Erebias

[Tony Moore]

The following pix were taken recently in Austria - all between 1000 and 2000 m. I wondered if the first might be meolans, but otherwise have no idea. On current form they're probably all manto! I would be grateful for any help or suggestions.

Tony M.

[Padfield]

As no one else has, I'll throw in some starters, subject to all the usual caveats about not seeing both surfaces:

1 and 4 look like euryale.

Now I know that manto can have hindwing spots in Austria, I think 3 might be manto.

For 5, I suggest meolans.

I'm not happy with 2. It doesn't look like manto to me. Wing shape suggests epiphron - hindwings suggest eriphyle even. I'd really love to see an underside.

Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

The ID difficulty is accentuated by the fact that these are from Austria and Erebia can be very variable across their range and we only really have experience of western Switzerland and the French Alps.

#2 is very difficult. Epiphron has so many subspecies acoss its range and they look completely different, so we have very little in the way of reference to compare it with.

#5 I suggest aethiops. As Guy says, it is very hard to say with any confidence from an upperside view alone, as many Erebia can be very variable, of which meolans is a good example. The upf red band is cut into sections, indicative of meolans I agree, but the meolans sections are usually rounded, and these are rather square which suggest aethiops to me.

Actually, I just looked at Lafranchis and meolans seems to have a very limited distribution in Austria while aethiops occurs through the whole country. I'm always cautious in giving weight to such circumstantial evidence, but it seems indicative here.

Roger

[Tony Moore]

Thank you very much, guys. I'm really in awe of such expertise.

I did start early ( about age 7) but unfortunately missed most of the next 60 years

Carpe diem...

Tony M.

[David M]

It was never meant to be easy, Tony!

That's one of the enduring factors in our interest - even the best are regularly perplexed.