ID French butterflies pls

[Edward_P]

Some help please on identifications of various species seen in South West France (Lot Departement), two weeks ago. d and e are the same individual. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos
Thank you.
Edward Pollard

[Wurzel]

Alright there? I'm no expert so some of these could well be corrected but to get the ball rolling...
a Knapweed Fritillary
b Heath Fritillary?
c Southern Grizzled Skipper
d and e Spotted Fritillary

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

a. Knapweed fritillary (Melitaea phoebe)
b. Heath fritillary (Melitaea nevadensis - formerly athalia)
c. Best guess for now, Oberthür's grizzled skipper (Pyrgus armoricanus) - an upperside would be very welcome!
d and e. Spotted fritillary (Melitaea didyma)

Guy

EDIT - I see Wurzel beat me to it, while my screen was saying 'Internal Server Error'! See what others make of the skipper.

Guy

[Edward_P]

Thank you for the speedy replies.

Unfortunately I didn't get any upper wing photos of the Skipper, but Oberthür's grizzled skipper was my thought too.

Not bad for the garden of a gite ! (accompanied by Adonis Blue, Cleopatra, Southern White Admiral, Lesser Purple Emperor, Woodland Grayling and previous years at the same place Queen of Spain Fritillary, Provencal Short-tailed Blue, Scarce Swallowtail)

Next I'll try your knowledge with a couple of tricky ones from Western Russia

[Roger Gibbons]

I agree armoricanus. It's not nailed-on but on the balance of probabilities it is a strong favourite. And according to Lafranchis, it flies in most of the Lot, so one reason for precluding it has been removed.

Roger