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

David M · Post by **David M** » Thu Jul 25, 2019 7:44 pm

Nymphalidae - Fritillaries....

At higher altitudes, things were a bit strange. The strangest of all was the near complete absence of Cynthia's Fritillaries. I saw only four in the entire fortnight, but the final two were worth waiting for:

I've read that in certain places this species completes its cycle over two years. If that were true here, it would be illogical however, as in 2017 Cynthia's were about in amazing numbers. Last year they were down massively, but I attributed that to the polar weather system that descended upon western Europe in the early spring, suppressing emergences significantly.

Perhaps they simply haven't recovered from this, and one hopes that things will improve in the next couple of years. For this year though, just seeing this fresh looking male was a real highlight of the trip after having spent so much time looking for them:

David M · Post by **David M** » Fri Jul 26, 2019 1:24 am

Nymphalidae - Fritillaries....

Another welcome addition during week 2 was Balkan Fritillary.

Normally, I avoid the site where it is found as it is a drag to get to with pot holes all over the road. This year though I decided to give it a go, and we ended up seeing half a dozen of this species:

David M · Post by **David M** » Sun Aug 04, 2019 6:45 pm

Nymphalidae - Fritillaries....

At the highest altitudes things were also a bit confusing. Shepherd's and Mountain Fritillary took a while to get going but good numbers were seen in the end.

Here's a female Mountain Frit:

....and a male:

Two years ago, Grison's Fritillary was scarce whilst Cynthia's was numerous. It was certainly role reversal this time. Grison's were well into three figures:

David M · Post by **David M** » Tue Aug 06, 2019 5:33 pm

Nymphalidae - Fritillaries

90. High Brown Fritillary
91. Dark Green Fritillary
92. Niobe Fritillary
93. Silver Washed Fritillary
94. Pearl Bordered Fritillary
95. Mountain Fritillary
96. Shepherd's Fritillary
97. Titania's Fritillary
98. Marbled Fritillary
99. Lesser Marbled Fritillary
100. Marsh Fritillary
101. Balkan Fritillary
102. Cynthia's Fritillary
103. Queen of Spain Fritillary
104. Heath Fritillary
105. Glanville Fritillary
106. Spotted Fritillary
107. Meadow Fritillary
108. Knapweed Fritillary
109. Grison's Fritillary
110. Provençal Fritillary

David M · Post by **David M** » Tue Aug 06, 2019 5:38 pm

Nymphalids - Satyrids....

As ever, Marbled Whites were stupidly common, numbering into the thousands. That said, mating pairs are hard to come by so I couldn't resist this opportunity when it came along:

Woodland Graylings were also around in reasonable numbers:

Great Sooty Satyrs were fairly commonplace at the site of the first hotel, but they are scarce elsewhere. Here's a nectaring female:

David M · Post by **David M** » Tue Aug 06, 2019 6:49 pm

Nymphalids - Satyrids....

On the Heath front, Pearly Heath won the award not only for commonest Heath but probably for commonest butterfly. They're so common I can't bring myself to even take an image, which is silly in hindsight as they are attractive little butterflies.

Chestnut Heath, on the other hand, is rather duller, but I made an effort with this one:

I was rather concerned as to whether the Dusky Heath colony at the first base would still be there, as intensive work is going on to lay concrete over the area where they can reliably be found. Thankfully, there were still several about, some using the newly erected wooden benches and stonework to perch on:

Small Heath and Darwin's Heath were recorded in smallish numbers, whilst Alpine Heath, which is absent in the southernmost part of the French Alps, once again became very common once north of Col de la Bonette:

David M · Post by **David M** » Wed Aug 07, 2019 8:42 pm

Nymphalidae - erebia....

Easily the commonest member of this group was Almond-Eyed Ringlet, an early summer species that has quite a monopoly in this region at this time of year. Several mating pairs were seen, including these two:

David M · Post by **David M** » Wed Aug 07, 2019 9:21 pm

Nymphalidae - erebia....

The next most common erebia was Large Ringlet. This species isn't particularly large, but it can be quite ubiquitous if the timing is right. After a slow start, numbers built impressively towards the latter end of the tour:

David M · Post by **David M** » Wed Aug 07, 2019 9:48 pm

Nymphalidae - erebia....

At higher altitudes, certain other erebia begin to show themselves, and one that was fairly common was Dewy Ringlet, seen in decent numbers close to the Queyras/Italian border:

David M · Post by **David M** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:43 am

Nymphalidae - erebia....

Another interesting erebia was Blind Ringlet, found in small numbers in a flowery meadow near one of the cols:

And on a col some distance away, a small number of the near-endemic to France False Mnestra Ringlets were recorded:

David M · Post by **David M** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:09 pm

Nymphalidae - Satyrids

111. Ringlet
112. Great Banded Grayling
113. Pearly Heath
114. Dusky Heath
115. Darwin's Heath
116. Alpine Heath
117. Alpine Heath
118. Chestnut Heath
119. False Mnestra Ringlet
120. Almond-Eyed Ringlet
121. Common Brassy Ringlet
122. Mountain Ringlet
123. Large Ringlet
124. Piedmont Ringlet
125. Blind Ringlet
126. Dewy Ringlet
127. Woodland Grayling
128. Large Wall
129. Wall Brown
130. Northern Wall Brown
131. Meadow Brown
132. Marbled White
133. Speckled Wood
134. Great Sooty Satyr

David M · Post by **David M** » Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:29 pm

In summary, this was again an extremely pleasant fortnight spent in a part of Europe almost unparallelled in its beauty. It also helps to have well over a hundred butterfly species to keep you entertained.

Like last year, general numbers were on the low side, and I genuinely think this is as a result of the Siberian high pressure system that froze much of western Europe in March 2018. Lycaenids in particular have struggled to recover from this, and I wonder whether this is due to the ant populations being decimated around that time because of the abnormally cold conditions so close to spring.

Butterflies are robust creatures though, and I'm sure they will bounce back as soon as conditions allow.

Meantime, here is a final selection of landscape images which give a taste of what to expect in this fabulous part of Europe: