Escher's?

[Paul]

Can someone confirm this is an Escher's. Same size, & flying with Amanda's in the Pyrenees recently. Looking at Guy's explanation to Denise about her Blues, I think this fits for Escher's..

[Padfield]

That's actually Amanda's blue, Paul. The books always show a broad, dark border but in fact the butterfly often appears bright to the edges of the wings. I have a similar photo somewhere but I can't seem to find it, so my proof will have to be this butterfly, which looks similar but does sort of show the dark border:



In the case of your butterfly, it really is about jizz. I recognised it instantly as Amanda's before I read your comments - something about the range of blues in the wings and the overall shape and appearance. By contrast, Escher's looks far more like a common blue - more compact (distinctly smaller than Amanda's) and with more of a single colour.

Here is Escher's:



I would forgive you if you started doubting my IDs, as I always seem to say 'no'!! But I'm pretty confident about your blue - it is a species I see a lot of and have a real feel for.

Guy

[Padfield]

No - the picture's not on my computer. It was probably from before I got the digital camera (only in 1985) and took all my pictures with a video camera. I found a dead amandus and shot it from differrent angles to show how the dark border completely disappears, being replaced by an apparently light area of the same shape and size.

Guy

PS - I do notice, browsing my pictures, that the dark costa is characteristic of amandus, and distinctive. Escher's doesn't seem to have this.

[Paul]

OK.. I was fooled by the lack of black border, but it doesn't look like my Escher's of last year... I'm not showing you that one in case it isn't

[Roger Gibbons]

Amanda's Blue (polyommatus amandus) is quite variable according to locality and altitude. Before 2008 I had only encountered it in ones or twos and only at a few localities, but this year I have seen it in about 6-8 places, maybe more (I haven’t analysed my records yet) and most have had dark borders of varying strength (e.g. 10978), but I did see one like yours Paul (11836) in the Alpes Maritimes at the end of June.

polyommatus amandus_10978.JPG (51.26 KiB) Viewed 410 times

polyommatus amandus_11836.JPG (99.08 KiB) Viewed 410 times

It is noticeably large and pale silvery blue in flight, quite easy to ID once you’ve seen a few. I guess the only blue it could be confused with is Damon Blue (agrodiaetus damon), although amandus is significantly larger.

Escher's Blue (polyommatus escheri) is also large in comparison to e.g. a Common Blue, but not quite as large as amandus I feel. It (the male) is a strong bright blue and the black margin is always strong and the hindwing margins always have a degree of chequering, sometimes heavy but sometimes it is quite light and other blues can have this, so it is not definitive. The escheri underside is beautifully subtle and I always try to photograph it if I can.

When I am back in the UK in October I plan to put a comparison grid with all male undersides together on one page. In the meantime, I have put up some highlights of 2008 so far on my web page. There’s a female underside there, too – a beautifully marked butterfly. Not hard to guess my favourite butterflies!

[Paul]

There are some superb photos on your website. Thanks for all the clarifications, I hope I'm learning!!