SW Andalucia - 5th to 9th October 2021

[David M]

Walking back to my car I saw this egret. Hopefully it was not hunting large butterflies!!

If it was hopefully one mouthful of one of the Danaids will put it off them for life!

Indeed, Paul. Hopefully the cardenolides keep them safe!

[David M]

Really enjoyable read so far David! Great stuff.

Thanks, Ben. Hopefully it brightens the gloom a little in the run up to Hallowe'en!

[David M]

Saturday was my final day, but my flight wasn't until 8pm, which gave me the opportunity to hunt down the one significant species I hadn't yet found.

The guide books state that Desert Orange Tip is present in Cadiz province, but for various reasons, I hadn't been able to find or access the right kind of habitat for it. There had looked to be promising, arid rocky hillsides at Zahara, but the general area was fenced off, possibly for military use. Much of the rest of the coastline wasn't really suitable, with the habitat largely consisting of dunes and shallow, scrubby slopes.

I figured that by driving to a known site for them near Motril I'd have time to spend a couple of hours looking for them and be able to get back to Malaga airport by 5pm.

Setting off at 9.30, I was pleased to find that once beyond Malaga there were no further peage stations and I ended up arriving just after midday.

The type of terrain favoured by this species isn't at all attractive; arid, rocky, largely desolate land:

[Padfield]

Hi David - yes, desert orange tip was the species I was expecting you to come up with! I'd happily have pm'd you my site, but I think it's important never to publish site details on open websites, even when they are privately well known, as it means a disproportionate number of (lazy) people all flock to the same places and trample them to death. When I got a Spanish net licence some years ago, it was a condition that I didn't publish the locations of species.

Guy

[Maximus]

Wonderful reportage, David, hope you find your desert Orange-tip on your last day

[David M]

Hi David - yes, desert orange tip was the species I was expecting you to come up with! I'd happily have pm'd you my site, but I think it's important never to publish site details on open websites, even when they are privately well known, as it means a disproportionate number of (lazy) people all flock to the same places and trample them to death. When I got a Spanish net licence some years ago, it was a condition that I didn't publish the locations of species.

Thanks, Guy. Yes, I understand what you mean regarding publicising exact locations of sensitive sites, although in fairness the Desert Orange Tip one east of Motril couldn't really be 'trampled' any more than it currently is (and judging by historic street-view images on Google this has been the case since at least 2008!!)

In fact, beavering around looking for sites on one's own is satisfying in itself, even when it doesn't generate the target species. I always had the CDF location as a back-up, so there was never any pressure.

[David M]

Wonderful reportage, David, hope you find your desert Orange-tip on your last day

Thanks, Mike. Pleased to say that there was no problem finding evagore.

[David M]

I'd barely stepped out of my car when I saw my first Desert Orange Tip. He stopped briefly on the ground and I was able to get this image:

Having never seen this species before, I wasn't sure how easy they would be to approach, and for the next few minutes it was very frustrating, as the next handful I saw were constantly fluttering around. As I walked further round the hillside though, there were some sticky inula flowers growing along the track and these proved very attractive to the butterflies:

[petesmith]

Fabulous! What a stunning butterfly evagore is, and what a great finale to your trip David! Congratulations on what must have been a hugely satisfying few days picking up some great lifers.

[David M]

Fabulous! What a stunning butterfly evagore is, and what a great finale to your trip David! Congratulations on what must have been a hugely satisfying few days picking up some great lifers.

Thanks, Pete. Yes, evagore is a delightful insect, although its habitat leaves a little to be desired.

[Padfield]

Brilliant! Well done, David. Desert orange tip is a gem of a butterfly. More importantly, in my mind, it's the only Colotis species in Europe, so a wonderful thing to make the acquaintance of. What really struck me when I first saw one was how tiny it is. And yet it is a strong migrant, apparently, sweeping into southern Spain throughout the summer. We look in vain all over the place for the foodplant but somehow it just flies in and finds it!

Guy

[bugboy]

A gorgeous little butterfly and as Padfield alludes to, much like the Monarch is a tiny slice of American lepi fauna over here, this is a little bit of Africa

[David M]

Brilliant! Well done, David. Desert orange tip is a gem of a butterfly. More importantly, in my mind, it's the only Colotis species in Europe, so a wonderful thing to make the acquaintance of. What really struck me when I first saw one was how tiny it is. And yet it is a strong migrant, apparently, sweeping into southern Spain throughout the summer. We look in vain all over the place for the foodplant but somehow it just flies in and finds it!

Agreed, Guy. It's a dashing little critter, not much bigger than a Chalkhill Blue. It clearly IS a strong flyer, but quite why it is commoner east of Malaga and up towards Alicante (where the distance from Africa is far greater) rather than in Cadiz province is puzzling. In 50 years time we'll probably have it in Britain the way things are going!!

[David M]

A gorgeous little butterfly and as Padfield alludes to, much like the Monarch is a tiny slice of American lepi fauna over here, this is a little bit of Africa

Yes, Paul. I guess the southern coast of Spain is sufficiently mild through the winter for butterflies like Monarch and Desert Orange Tip to persist. Same goes for Zeller's Skipper, which is another African resident that has gained a European toe-hold.

[David M]

I stumbled across several female Desert Orange Tips, and these, like our own female Orange Tips, are far less flighty and much easier to approach.

However, in evagore the females are more attractive than the males, and it was lovely watching them nectaring from the flowers:

I uploaded a short video taken with my mobile phone, which had a delightful conclusion when the female I was filming was joined by a male right at the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is2J2aFmpvA

In the hour and twenty minutes I was there, I saw 39 Desert Orange Tips. The only other butterflies were a couple of Meadow Browns, a Clouded Yellow and a female Swallowtail ovipositing on the copious fennel.

A straightforward run back to the airport left me ample time to drop off my rental car and make it to departures at Malaga airport.

[Matsukaze]

There are plenty of sites that look basically like that in the far south of Spain. Is there some subtle requirement that the Desert Orange-tip needs, or is it actually quite common at the right time of year there?

[David M]

There are plenty of sites that look basically like that in the far south of Spain. Is there some subtle requirement that the Desert Orange-tip needs, or is it actually quite common at the right time of year there?

Certainly, it requires its larval host plant, capparis spinosa, to be present, Chris. There was a reasonable amount of this growing in the waste ground at the CDF site:

I've read that it migrates inland in good years, reaching the environs of Granada, but it cannot survive the winters there. Clearly, the coast is preferable for it, with warmer night-time temperatures presumably helping it.

[Matsukaze]

Thanks David. A few hurdles still to negotiate but I hope to be there next week, visiting my mother for the first time since January 2020. Butterflies won't be high on my list, but I'll be keeping my eyes open!

[David M]

Good to know you're finally getting away, Chris. I hope your trip goes smoothly.

[David M]

Overall, this was a most enjoyable short break. I only saw 25 species, but 5 of them were 'lifers' and several others were species that are relatively scarce unless you visit the warmer parts of the Mediterranean region. The full butterfly list (including numbers seen) is as follows:

1. Lang’s Short Tailed Blue (300+)
2. Plain Tiger (c.100)
3. Monarch (c.50)
4. Small White (50-70)
5. Long Tailed Blue (40-60)
6. Desert Orange Tip 39
7. Clouded Yellow (30-50)
8. Meadow Brown (30-50)
9. Zeller’s Skipper (15-20)
10. African Grass Blue (15-20)
11. Southern Blue (5-10)
12. Cardinal 5
13. Painted Lady 5
14. Tree Grayling 5
15. Wall Brown 3
16. Red Admiral 3
17. False Mallow Skipper 3
18. Bath White 3
19. Swallowtail 3
20. Mediterranean Skipper 3
21. Speckled Wood 2
22. Holly Blue 2
23. Brimstone 1
24. Sage Skipper 1
25. Queen of Spain Fritillary 1