Greenwings: French Alps, Mercantour, Queyras, 29 June to 13 July 2019

[David M]

Another spellbinding fortnight in the French Alps provided 135 or so species, not to mention good food, convivial company and tremendous views, some of which are below:

[Sylvie_h]

Hi David,

Fantastic views ! I am looking forward for more pictures and the full report. I hope you were not too affected by the heat although I would expect it to be cooler in the mountains.
Sylvie

[David M]

..I hope you were not too affected by the heat although I would expect it to be cooler in the mountains.

Hi Sylvie, it was very hot at the beginning as the canicule was pretty much at its apogee, but things cooled down somewhat later on, especially after moving north into the Queyras.

[David M]

This was a strange trip in the sense that my trepidation prior to arriving was principally due to record temperatures forecast for southern France; I baulked at the idea of Spanish-style heat in elevated parts of the south western Alps, but these fears dissipated within a few days, as the extreme heat rapidly evaporated leaving a different problem - fierce thunderstorms in the late afternoon which caused some disruption, but not a great deal.

Here are a few more landscape shots before I deal with the butterflies:

[David M]

I felt that the season was still slightly behind, in spite of the record-breaking temperatures immediately prior to arrival. This manifested itself in unusual ways, making certain butterflies explode in numbers whereas others were generally conspicuous by their relative absence.

For instance, the larger Fritillaries were thin on the ground, but the smaller ones were very common indeed. What's more, the Lycaenidae seemed to have recovered a little ground after their abject showing in 2018. For this reason, I'll start with this group:

Lycaenidae - Coppers

I 'maxed' out on Coppers during the Italy trip in mid-June, so I didn't pay a great deal of attention to them here. However, Sooty Coppers were seen in low double figures compared to last year where none whatsoever were seen. Purple Edged numbered about 30 during the trip, Purple Shot were about in similar volume and Small Copper cropped up singly at regular intervals.

The most pleasing aspect was the recovery of Scarce Copper, after a terrible year in 2018. I reckon two dozen were recorded in total, including this beautiful individual:

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Coppers

1. Small Copper
2. Purple-Shot Copper
3. Purple-Edged Copper
4. Sooty Copper
5. Scarce Copper

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Blues

Every trip is different, and every year sees new things. However, one thing I didn't expect to see was what follows in this post and I will perhaps never see it again.

Alpine Blue is a tricky species in the sense that it occurs at low density and its habitat tends to be amongst the wide open spaces of the high cols of the region.

The best chance of locating it is at puddling sites, but on this occasion my co-guide during the first week had the savvy observational skill to track a bright coloured blue in one of the combes at a 2,000m col and he happened to see it suddenly drop to the ground without warning.

I received a telephone call (thank heavens for modern technology) at this remote spot and nearly killed myself running up a steep hill to verify what he had reported - a pair of Alpines in cop:

They were together for just over half an hour before they separated, and I managed to get this image of the rarely seen female before she too disappeared into the alpine wilderness:

I managed to take this short video of proceedings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2ouclPj5ks[/video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2ouclPj5ks

[David M]

Lycaenids - Blues...

I'm pleased to say that generally, numbers within this group were noticeably superior to last year. We had no problem finding Mountain Alcon Blues:

Several Long Tailed Blues turned up too:

Geranium Argus was a regular at medium/high altitude:

One of the other highlights was finding several Meleager's Blues, including this mating pair:

The calliopsis form of Idas Blue proved confusing; at first I was convinced this was Reverdin's but thanks to the venerable Mr Padfield for putting me right!

[petesmith]

Wow! A mating pair of Alpine Blues AND a mating pair of Meleager's? You were treated there David! I have yet to see either of these two species in cop.

[David M]

Wow! A mating pair of Alpine Blues AND a mating pair of Meleager's? You were treated there David! I have yet to see either of these two species in cop.

Thanks, Pete. Yes, I got very lucky and although I still prefer butterflying on my own, it DOES help when you've got 14 pairs of eyes looking out for things.

I spotted the Meleager's myself, but the Alpine's were all the work of my co-guide, Jon. Later in the trip it was two guests who found another iconic species in cop but I'll leave that till my images are ready to post!

[Goldie M]

Lovely Butterflies David, It's always great looking at Butterflies you've never seen, really enjoyed all your shot's Goldie

[David M]

Lovely Butterflies David, It's always great looking at Butterflies you've never seen, really enjoyed all your shot's Goldie

Thanks, Goldie. Yes, you're right, seeing a new butterfly is always great. That doesn't happen very often for me now but when it does, the rarity value makes the pleasure even more intense.

[David M]

Lycaenids - Blues....

As the fortnight wore on and the heatwave stamped its mark on proceedings, more and more of the higher altitude Blues began to emerge. Silvery Argus was a welcome companion:

Idas Blues suddenly became quite commonplace:

Damon Blues followed the same pattern:

To buck the trend, Amanda's Blue was encountered more frequently in the first week than the second:

As ever, there was fun to be had at the many puddling spots along the way. This image shows the clear difference in appearance between Silver Studded Blue (to the left) and Idas Blue (to the right):

....and then there were occasions where many different species could be seen together (the Fritillary is Grison's, and there are at least Idas Blue, Silvery Argus and Glandon Blue in the 'spotlight'):

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Blues

6. Brown Argus
7. Mountain Argus
8. Geranium Argus
9. Silvery Argus
10. Geranium Bronze
11. Holly Blue
12. Small Blue
13. Mazarine Blue
14. Green Underside Blue
15. Lang's Short Tailed Blue
16. Mountain Alcon Blue
17. Large Blue
18. Silver Studded Blue
19. Glandon Blue
20. Idas Blue
21. Alpine Blue
22. Amanda's Blue
23. Adonis Blue
24. Chalkhill Blue
25. Damon Blue
26. Turquoise Blue
27. Eros Blue
28. Escher's Blue
29. Common Blue
30. Chapman's Blue
31. Baton Blue
32. Chequered Blue
33. Meleager's Blue
34. Long Tailed Blue

[Padfield]

An outstanding selection of photos, David, especially of the alpine argus in cop.

In the interests of accuracy (and at the risk of appearing churlish ), can I question the Reverdin's blue? It looks like idas to me and would certainly be highly anomalous if it were really Reverdin's ...

Guy

[David M]

Certainly, Guy. I questioned myself about this to the point of distraction but these butterflies just didn't seem like the many, many Idas Blues I'm used to seeing out here.

First of all, here's a Reverdin's female seen in Italy last month:

Then there's the one I posted earlier (also a female):

Here's a partial upperside of the same butterfly:

This one is the underside of a male photographed within 30m of the female:

Finally, here's a male Idas Blue from an earlier Alps trip (I didn't take any underside shots this year):

[Padfield]

Hi David. I have to say, both the male and female from your present trip look like P. idas calliopis to me. I don't want to push the point, as I wasn't there and didn't see the context, but they are quite unlike any argyrognomon I've ever seen. In Switzerland, calliopis is the valley subspecies and is distinctly larger, brighter and more 'open' than the upland idas. Its foodplant is sea buckthorn. This plant is invariably found somewhere in the vicinity.

Guy

[David M]

Hi David. I have to say, both the male and female from your present trip look like P. idas calliopis to me. I don't want to push the point, as I wasn't there and didn't see the context, but they are quite unlike any argyrognomon I've ever seen. In Switzerland, calliopis is the valley subspecies and is distinctly larger, brighter and more 'open' than the upland idas.

Many thanks for this, Guy. I think you have nailed it.

What struck me was the sheer size of the butterflies; much bigger than the idas routinely seen at 1,800m and above. I was scratching my head about how I had failed to notice these 'Reverdin's' in previous years, as it is a regularly visited site.

That said, having posted an image of a genuine Reverdin's seen last month in Italy (where no Idas at all were recorded), I can see subtle differences between that and the calliopis underneath, principally the smaller-sized spots of the latter on the unh and the slightly reduced orange lunules towards the apical tip of the unf.

I must admit I'd never heard of this form before your earlier post, and when I ran a web search the top returns were from Matt Rowlings, Roger Gibbons and Guy Padfield!!

This is what's so good about butterflying in Europe - there's always something totally new or completely unexpected lurking.

I will rewrite the caption, adjust the species list accordingly and file your information in my memory bank for future reference.

Thanks again!

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Hairstreaks....

Quite an assortment of Hairstreaks again, with an indication of the late season coming with double figure numbers of Green Hairstreaks seen!

Blue Spot was around in decent numbers, and a few Sloe Hairstreaks popped up here and there. Pleasingly, Purple Hairstreaks were around in reasonable numbers, with some of them coming down to take honeydew from the fruit trees:

The colony of White Letter Hairstreaks discovered last year was still going strong, although they were not nectaring from the flowers in the meadow like they were during the last visit. Ilex & False Ilex were rather easier to observe, and I managed to get an image of one of each on the same flowerhead, which clearly shows the difference between these two species (Ilex on the left):

The biggest surprise was, just like in 2018, the appearance of a Black Hairstreak at the second hotel used in week 1. Last year, the individual was found in the adjacent field, but this time we had one turn up on the tarmac of the car park!!

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Hairstreaks

35. Green Hairstreak
36. Purple Hairstreak
37. White Letter Hairstreak
38. Black Hairstreak
39. Sloe Hairstreak
40. Ilex Hairstreak
41. False Ilex Hairstreak
42. Blue-Spot Hairstreak