What a lot of fantastic butterflies, including some great rarities!
I've divided my top 10 into two halves, 1-5 and 6-10. So here are nos 6-10, in no particular order within the group - I can't rank them. I might be able to rank 1-5, though ...
Cranberry fritillary (
Boloria aquilonaris), as has already been noted, is a very special butterfly. In Switzerland it flies locally over
Vaccinnium bogs, often in the company of cranberry blues and moorland clouded yellows, which share the same foodplant.
Here are two of them on the foodplant, refusing to talk:
Females often lay their eggs not on the foodplant but on other low-growing plants in the vicinity. This is one such:
Titania's fritillary (
Boloria titania) is a constant accompaniment in the Alps in high summer. It is large and bold - almost brash - and has an exquisite underside:
Here's one feeding somewhat incongruously at a martagon lily:
I was once lucky enough to come across a pupa, quite by chance:
Sagarra's lesser spotted fritillary (
Melitaea ignasiti) is largely restricted to Spain, though it was proved in 2017 to be breeding in Cerdagne. I came across my first individual on the morning of my last day in Aragón - by chance also in 2017 - before heading south to Córdoba. It was still warming up and stubbornly refused to allow me any glimpse of the underside, with the diagnostic disco-cellular vein:
In the evening, on my way home, I found more, nectaring in a field. It was difficult, but eventually I got the proof I wanted. The vein is only prominent for about half the cell crossing but this is still entirely different from in
didyma, where the cell is entirely open. This is what I was looking for:
This is what it looks like in the context of the whole butterfly:
A very exciting evening I will not forget!
Lesser marbled fritillary (
Brenthis ino) is locally common on my mountain and I had a very strong colony just at the end of my road until someone cut down all the meadowsweet ... It survives there, however, and I saw a few when I returned in July 2019. These are from former years:
And this is from 2019:
High brown fritillary (
Argynnis adippe) is the last of my runners up. It is very common in my part of Switzerland, often feeding in groups with silver-washed fritillaries and marbled fritillaries. Both the upperside and the underside are beautiful.
Occasionally I come across form
cleodoxa, where the silver on the underside is replaced by buff. This one was in Switzerland:
And a normal individual for comparison:
This couple was in Spain, in 2005. The male is
cleodoxa and the female normal:
1-5 to come!
Guy
