Pyrenees Erebia

[Part timer]

I spent a very enjoyable, if hot, 10 days in the French Pyrenees in the last week of June. The erebia were very flighty, but those I got close to turned out almost exclusively to be Piedmont or Bright-eyed Ringlet.

I do have three I'm wondering about - apologies for the appalling quality of the photographs that were taken at some distance. I considered whether the first, taken at the Col du Tourmalet (2100m), might be Lefebvre's Ringlet, given how close the ocelli are to the margin. The other two were taken close to the Chapel de Heas and the hindwing markings made me think possibly Mountain Ringlet.

Any opinions welcome.

[Padfield]

Hi Part Timer! Sorry for not replying to this sooner (now prompted by your Costa Rican post). I've been a bit of a part-timer myself this year, with various obligations.

Your first Erebia looks very good for lefebvrei. My experience of this butterfly in the (Spanish) Pyrenees is that it never flies far from its stony, shaly, home slope. There is nothing about your picture that suggests it might not be this and everything to suggest it is. I'd give 99% probability ...

The other two pictures are harder, mainly because of the focus issues, but I feel most happy with oeme. Again, there's nothing in these pictures to contradict oeme and plenty to suggest it - I just don't feel I'm seeing everything because of the picture quality. I'd rule out epiphron, incidentally, which looks nothing like this - and I've seen plenty of Pyrenean epiphron. How about 75% confidence for oeme?

Guy

[Part timer]

I'll settle for that, Guy - thanks very much. There were plenty of oeme elsewhere in the area, so I suspect your 75% may be erring on the side of cautious!