A few late summer Italian snaps

[Kip]

Holiday over. I set out with little expectation but a bit of hope for one or two lifetime new sightings. I came away with three of these and a couple of better than previously achieved species photos... so that is pretty good for me I think.
Here are my highlights, not that there are many....
Firstly Lang's Short-tailed Blue, seen again after a long gap in time...

Next, my best ever shot of a male Long-tailed Blue...

A better shot of Tree Grayling than my last posting....

Eastern Bath White...

Southern Small White...

A little unexpected, Pigmy Skipper...

A local version of Small Heath...

and for me, two other aspirational species...
Sage Skipper, a fresh female...

and finally, Two-tailed Pasha, my first and only encounter, initially spotted from the car, but luckily I was able to stop and get a couple of snaps of this rather world weary specimen...

All in all, rather enjoyable, if not species rich.

[Chris Jackson]

A nice series of seasonal shots, Kip, with the Sage skipper clearly on its host plant, Phlomis herba venti.
That Long-tailed Blue is nice and fresh.
Chris

[Padfield]

Brilliant stuff, Paul!

I have to say, that sage skipper is so different from any I've seen in Spain it had me scuttling to the books to see if there was some other species of Muschampia it might be, that I'd forgotten about. But no - that's the only one in Italy.

I'm glad you caught up with jasius! If I'd never seen one, that would be top of my wanted list. And great stuff with the pigmy skipper.

Guy

[David M]

Nice line-up, Kip. How surprising was Pygmy Skipper for you? Is it common round those parts?

[Kip]

Thanks chaps... I had seen both pigmy and Mediterranean skippers in the past, but somehow forgot to figure them in to my list of hopefuls.. actually saw them in largish numbers at just one site, and had plenty of opportunity to snap them as they were not at all shy - last time I saw them they were much more flighty.
That Long-tailed Blue was alongside a few more much more worn specimens, luckily for me.
I had missed Sage skipper whenever I thought I had a chance in the past, and saw them only at one roadside random site this time.. there were several hyperactive males, and this one large female.. really large, Tessellated skipper size. Maybe if I had figured out the larval foodplant before I would have had a better clue to where I might see them as I now understand they are quite closely tied to it (?)
Other species on the wing were Small and Large Skipper, Mallow Skipper, Southern Comma, Painted Lady, Common Blue, Brown Argus, Small Copper, Large White, Swallowtail, Meadow Brown, the Grayling was a lone sighting.
The Pasha was suitably exciting to me, but the experience was somewhat lessened by an irate wife, left in the car on a busy road intersection with only articulated lorries for company