Greenwings: Montes Universales, Spain, 27 July - 5 August 2019

[David M]

Lycaenids - Blues...

One of the most sought after lycaenids on this trip is Mother of Pearl Blue.

Like Turquoise Blue, its close relative, it tends to stick to the dry tracks, but it can often be found puddling, though never in huge numbers:

They're easy to pick out, being so pale in colour amongst the more 'radiant' Blues:

[David M]

Lycaenids - Blues...

Another great pleasure is being surrounded by Spanish Chalkhill Blues. They're not common everywhere, but they can certainly be seen in the multi-hundreds at the right locations.

They are very large, akin to arion, and silvery white in colour, so much so that when one catches the corner of your eye in flight, it can be mistaken for one of the Whites for a moment:

I took some brief footage of good numbers of them puddling at a riverside site. Practically every airborne butterfly in this clip is albicans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9pqTRF1830

[David M]

Lycaenids - Blues...

One conundrum we struggled to unravel was how a small number of 'Spanish Chalkhill Blues' appeared to be powder blue, rather than silvery white.

Here are a handful of images of certain of these:

At first, my feeling was that these might be Provence Chalkhill Blues. However, the second brood of these ought to be fairly fresh at the beginning of August whereas most of the 'blue' specimens seen were a little worn. Certainly the underside of the last individual appears much more strongly marked than I would expect albicans to be.

If not hispana, then I wonder whether these are hybrids?

[David M]

Lycaenids - Blues

72. Long Tailed Blue
73. Geranium Bronze*
74. Lang's Short Tailed Blue
75. Holly Blue
76. Silver Studded Blue
77. Idas Blue
78. Southern Brown Argus
79. Southern Mountain Argus
80. Turquoise Blue
81. Mother of Pearl Blue
82. Amanda's Blue
83. Chapman's Blue
84. Common Blue
85. Adonis Blue
86. Azure Chalkhill Blue
87. Spanish Chalkhill Blue
88. Oberthur's Anomalous Blue
89. Meleager's Blue
90. Damon Blue
91. Escher's Blue
92. Panoptes Blue
93. Large Blue
94. Spanish Argus

*seen by me after the departure of the guests.

[Padfield]

Lysandra can be very tricky in Spain, David - and there do seem to be quite a lot of hybrids to make matters worse. In northern Spain, albicans always has a Daz blue-whiteness to it - it's not pure white as in the Sierra Nevada, for example. But like you, I have come across individuals too pale for normal coridon but too blue even for northern albicans in regions where both fly. I usually put them down provisionally as coridon, in the knowledge they might be hybrids. Thus:


(14th July 2017, Aragón)


(14th July 2017, Aragón)

And albicans on the same day:



I must admit, I meant to research this to establish what all my photos from that trip were, but forgot. Your post has prompted me to get back to it!

Guy

[David M]

Thanks for that, Guy. Most interesting. As you say Spain is a funny old place when it comes to Chalkhill Blues. The books say coridon doesn't extend very far south and I haven't yet found a sufficiently detailed distribution map for hispana which would demonstrate that this species IS present in the sierra de albarracin.

I intend to pay more attention to them next year as there are some individuals that just don't fit the descriptions for albicans and caelestissimus and if hispana is NOT present in the region then the default assumption is that they are hybrids.

[David M]

Lycaenids - Hairstreaks

There were a few from this group around, but they were generally quite worn (with occasional exceptions).

The main target was Spanish Purple Hairstreak, and although I didn't see it myself (unlike last year), others did even though it didn't distinguish itself in terms of where it chose to settle.

The full range was:

95. Spanish Purple Hairstreak
96. Blue Spot Hairstreak
97. Ilex Hairstreak
98. False Ilex Hairstreak
99. Sloe Hairstreak

[David M]

Papilionidae

Just three of these, but all are eye-catchers.

Swallowtails popped up in small numbers here and there. As ever, they were most common around the peaks.

Iberian Scarce Swallowtails numbered 50 or so. Most were fresh and extremely striking, more so (in my opinion) than podalirius.

Just like last year, two Apollos were seen. I don't think they're common in this region.

[David M]

Papilionidae

100. Iberian Scarce Swallowtail
101. Swallowtail
102. Apollo

[David M]

A total of 102 species at the beginning of August is very creditable, and shows what a good area the Montes Universales is for butterflies.

We thought we had found Great Sooty Satyr too, but upon reflection, the markings on the hindwing undersides were consistent with those of Black Satyr in this region.

The jury is still out on the 'intermediate' Blues seen. They didn't look like albicans, nor did they resemble caelestissima. Apparently, coridon IS recorded in this region (as the attachment shows), but I would expect this species to be around in numbers rather than just the odd individual turning up. I will concentrate a little more on this during next year's visit, which I am already looking forward to it.

Coridon.docx

(214.33 KiB) Downloaded 59 times

[Goldie M]

Wow! David, what a wonderful array of Butterflies, it's been great following you through your post's Goldie

[petesmith]

Brilliant David! 102 species is remarkable. I only managed 76 species during my visit the week after the tour, although to be fair I was very much focussed on personal new life ticks and other specific rarities, rather than racking up a big list. A fantastic part of the world, and one that I would love to revisit one day...

[John Vergo]

Good report David, now I am really looking forward to next years trip, I have booked

[Mikhail]

Hybrid Lysandra in the Montes Universales are likely to be the taxon once known by the name Lysandra coerulescens. Manley in A Field Guide to the Butterflies and Burnets of Spain mentions it and states that it always seems to occur where caelestissima and albicans come into contact. For this reason it was suspected to be a hybrid, and I gather that has now been confirmed. The distribution map you give a link to may be trreating caelestissima as conspecific with coridon. I attach a photo of what I think is coerulescens. The colour may be slightly inaccurate.

M.

[selbypaul]

Hi David
If you remember, on the same day, I got a slightly better upperside shot of a different individual of the possible Provencal Chalkhill Blue (lysandra hispana), see attached photo.

Looking through my various identification books and also online, one of the features of many of the pictures and photos of hispana seems to be on the topside of the forewing, with the dusky black line running parallel with the wing edge, enclosing the grey/black spots. Also, your underside shot looks much more like hispana than anything else, including caelestissima or albicans, the parents of the hybrid called coerulescens.

I wouldn't rule coerulescens out, as it is the next most likely identification, but for me, it still looks like hispana.

Hope this helps, and great report overall by the way!
Best Wishes
Paul

[David M]

Wow! David, what a wonderful array of Butterflies, it's been great following you through your post's Goldie

Thanks, Goldie. It was a real experience and I hope my amateur standard images go some way to bringing it to life.

It's rare to see so many butterflies in a single place in Europe, but this region has several species that can reliably be seen in the thousands.

[David M]

Brilliant David! 102 species is remarkable. I only managed 76 species during my visit the week after the tour, although to be fair I was very much focussed on personal new life ticks and other specific rarities, rather than racking up a big list. A fantastic part of the world, and one that I would love to revisit one day...

Thanks, Pete. Yes, agreed - this is a stunning area of Europe for butterflies. It's quite surprising how it remains 'off the beaten track'.

Don't forget, your 76 species came with just one pair of eyes. I had a rather more advantageous 13 pairs!

[David M]

Hybrid Lysandra in the Montes Universales are likely to be the taxon once known by the name Lysandra coerulescens. Manley in A Field Guide to the Butterflies and Burnets of Spain mentions it and states that it always seems to occur where caelestissima and albicans come into contact. For this reason it was suspected to be a hybrid, and I gather that has now been confirmed. The distribution map you give a link to may be trreating caelestissima as conspecific with coridon. I attach a photo of what I think is coerulescens. The colour may be slightly inaccurate.

Many thanks for this, Mikhail, although your specimen does appear rather darker than the 'hybrids' we were seeing. I still need more information on which Chalkhill species are actually present in the region. I didn't knowingly see any coridon although the distribution maps DO seem to indicate their presence.

I had assumed caelestissima took over from coridon in these parts, and was joined by albicans at various sites.

I will have to pay serious attention to this next year and concentrate on getting clear upperside and underside images of any that seem to fall outside the two named above.

[David M]

Good report David, now I am really looking forward to next years trip, I have booked

Good to hear, John.

Prepare yourself for blue skies, warm sunshine, cheap beer, free wine and an explosion of butterflies! Maybe you'll be able to help with this Chalkhill Blue conundrum!

[John Vergo]

David, I must say that you have put up some tricky ones , my first thought, when I saw yours, was hispana, but now I am not quite sure, yes maybe a hybrid ??, but the one Paul have put on, I would call that one hispana
john