I have recently returned from my final European butterflying trip of 2023 – 8 days touring around the departments of Isere and Haute Savoie in eastern France in the excellent company of Bob Lambert. We had half a dozen key target species lined up for this trip, but the main raison d’etre of the entire expedition was to find and photograph the Scarce Large Blue, a butterfly that has been inexcusably absent from both of our life-lists.
The European “Large Blues” have always had a special place in our hearts. I was only 13 years old when the extinction of the Large Blue in the UK made headline news back in 1979, but I vividly recall the feeling of disappointment and a deep sense of loss – I felt cheated of a birthright – I would never get to see one of the most iconic of species in the British countryside. My childhood days of leafing through the pages of the Observer’s Book of British Butterflies, dreaming of one day seeing arion for myself in the wild, now felt slightly tarnished by what was, in hindsight, a tragic conservation failure.
I had to wait until I was in my early thirties until I finally got to see a wild Large Blue during a family holiday in the Dordogne. Although it had been a long time coming it didn’t disappoint! Bob got his first sighting of a Large Blue a few years after me, a close-up encounter with this deep blue beauty at one of the successful reintroduction sites at Green Down, Somerset.
The species has retained some kind of mythical romanticism for both of us, and as we have progressively trawled through the world of European Butterflies over the years, we have eagerly sought out other members of this group. I confess that we both still use the term Maculinea when discussing these beasts, rather than the correct modern taxonomy of Phengaris, probably because we are both stubbornly set in our ways and old enough to be considered eligible for “dinosaur” status these days!
We saw our first Mountain Alcon Blues in the Maritime Alps back in 2011; at that point in time this was still considered by most to be a separate species from the Alcon Blue. Dusky Large Blue followed in 2019; good numbers at a beautiful and remote site in northern Spain. With the Alcon and Mountain Alcon subsequently having been reduced to subspecies status by the taxonomists, there was just the Scarce Large Blue left for us to find. So, when I mentioned to Bob last summer that I was planning a trip out to France in July this year to see it, I should not have been too surprised that his eyes lit up. A few days later I got a phone call from him – “I don’t suppose you want any company when you go out looking for the Scarce Large Blue next year, do you? Because I’ve spoken to the wife and I have got permission to join you, if that’s OK. Please say if it isn’t.”
How could I say no?
Anyhow, enough preamble, let’s crack on with the main story…
Tuesday 25th July
The timing of this trip was a bit of a compromise. Scarce Large Blue was definitely our number one target, but we also hoped to catch up with a few Erebias that fly in late July and early August. We therefore pitched our arrival towards the end of July, aware that if the season was an early one, we might be on the late side for teleius. These days, timings of any European trips are a gamble, so there was the usual trepidation as we arrived, on time, at Geneva Airport in the afternoon of Tuesday 25th July. Passport control, baggage reclaim and car hire collection went very smoothly and we were soon on the way to our first site, a wetland just 20 minutes’ drive from the airport.
On arrival, the weather was overcast but mild. There was a distinct lack of butterfly action, but after ten minutes of looking out across the marais from the observatory platform, we caught a couple of brief and distant glimpses of what might have been our main target. Other butterflies were scarce but included single figures of Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood, Large Skipper and Small White – nothing to write home about! We walked a little further and took an overgrown path onto the edge of the marais, which was abundant in Great Burnet, Purple Loosestrife, Hemp Agrimony and Purging Buckthorn scrub.
Scarce Large Blue habitat
Ten minutes later, a Scarce Large Blue female flew up right in front of me and posed nicely. Fantastic! Target species number one in the bag in no time at all! This took all pressure off. We grabbed a few photographs, then left her to go about her business. A single, tiny Large Copper in a rather poor state of wear provided added interest, after which we walked back to the car, buzzing from the almost-too-easy experience of our final European Phengaris lifer. It was time to drive to our first base, via the supermarket to stock up on the usual essentials. We had limited cooking facilities at our first apartment, a lovely, peaceful, rural, if somewhat overpriced gite, right on the edge of a lake near Aix-les-Bains, so we made do with a pre-packaged salad, some bread, cheese, and of course plenty of decent red wine, Beaumes de Venise and Cahors tonight. Hardships like these just go with the territory when touring for continental butterflies!
Wednesday 26th July
After a decent night’s rest following our travel out here, we awoke in good spirits on Wednesday and indulged in the breakfast provided by our host. We had a decision to make. We could either stay local this morning and explore another wetland reserve just around the corner, or we could head further south to another Scarce Large Blue site. We had only seen and photographed a single female yesterday and wanted to get to know the butterfly a little better. Local Lepidopterist John Green had kindly been doing a few recces on our behalf at a well-known site near Grenoble just before our arrival in France, and we knew from him that SLB was currently on the wing out there, so it was a no-brainer really. We were fortunate that John had given us the benefit of his local knowledge, as this was a large reserve, and the SLB was only flying in a linear area of a mere 250 metres along one specific overgrown track. We spent a couple of hours out there, and two female Scarce Large Blues kindly gave us a great display, posing nicely for the cameras and egg-laying right in front of us, completely unperturbed by our presence. It was a very memorable occasion, and fascinating to watch the females selecting the youngest, tightest flower heads on which to deposit their valuable ova, but other than SLB, there was an alarming dearth of butterfly activity.
Scarce Large Blue
I had left behind a Lincolnshire that was teeming with butterflies: Red Admirals and Commas in their hundreds, Silver-washed Fritillaries en masse, numerous Gatekeepers, Large and Small Whites, Purple Hairstreaks and so on. Despite the prolonged unsettled weather and rather abysmal summer, the “Lincolnshire Butterfly Biomass Index” was registering well into the heavyweight zone. And I had arrived in an area of France that is usually bouncing with insect life, only to find that over the course of several hours in what seemed to be prime habitat, we had recorded just the following: one Large Skipper, one Clouded Yellow, one Large White, two Small Whites, two Scarce Large Blues, five Provencal Short-tailed Blues, two Holly Blues, two Meadow Browns, one Gatekeeper, one Small Heath and five Speckled Woods. That was it. Twenty-three butterflies, 11 species in total. What the hell was going on?
By lunchtime we had taken a sack-full of photographs of SLB, so we decided to head to higher altitude up to the Haut Breda, where we hoped to find our next main target species, the Sudeten Ringlet. The sun was shining as we drove up a winding road, around a series of hairpins, climbing all the time. The roadside verges here had been heavily strimmed right up to the tree line – there was not a single wildflower or blade of grass taller than a centimetre to be seen – just mile after mile of utter devastation. As we got close to our destination, we were also getting closer to the clouds, and sure enough as we parked up, we found ourselves actually in them.
Haut Breda
It was cool and damp, but we got out to check out the habitat anyway. It didn’t look great. As Bob pointed out, using the vernacular, the whole place had been “cowed to death”. Overgrazing is a highly depressing but increasingly common failure factor when it comes to alpine and sub-alpine entomology these days. The clouds lifted briefly, but the habitat condition meant very little was on the wing. We saw four Piedmont Ringlets, one Large Ringlet and one Lulworth Skipper. Of sudetica there was not a glimpse. We admitted defeat and went to the supermarket in search of decent food, as tonight we were in our second base, and we had cooking facilities at our disposal. We were staying in a beautiful, rural, and rather ancient property at Froges for two nights, and enjoyed some fine French sausages with mushrooms and dauphinoise potatoes for dinner. Bob does all the evening cooking during our ventures, and I do all the driving – it’s developed into a familiar routine over the years and seems to work well!
Chateau Froges - home for 2 nights
Thursday 27th July
This morning we had the pleasure of meeting up with John Green and having a last look at his Scarce Large Blue site. It was great to spend some time chewing the cud and chatting about butterflies with John whilst being in SLB territory, and benefitting from his knowledge and experience of the area. He confirmed that in 30 years of living locally he had never known a season so low in butterfly numbers.
But we had unfinished business with a certain Ringlet that we missed out on yesterday, so late morning we set off from the marais and wound our way up towards the Col du Glandon. I had it on good authority that the Sudeten Ringlet flies near to the Col on the north side, but I didn’t have any precise location details. During the research phase before this trip, I had identified what looked to be a potentially suitable area on Google Earth, where we could park up and search. On arrival we got out of the car, ducked under an electric fence (more bloody cows!), and aimed for an area of ungrazed scrubby grassland where some Scabious was in flower. It may have been intuition, pure luck, or a combination of the two, but this spot quickly produced the goods. Several Erebias were flying around, reluctant to settle and difficult to photograph when they did (usually down amongst grasses, or swaying in the breeze on a flowerhead). After some consternation that we might actually be looking at Lesser Mountain Ringlets, I eventually got good enough views of a few undersides, which confirmed that we did indeed have Sudeten Ringlet in front of us – another lifer for us both. Happy days! Almond-eyed and Lesser Mountain Ringlet were also present at this site, along with a few Purple-edged Coppers, Damon Blues, Chalkhill Blues, and Dark Green, Silver-washed, Spotted, Heath and Meadow Fritillaries.
Habitat of Sudeten Ringlet
Hire Car in sudetica territory
Sudeten Ringlet
We stopped off on the way back down from the Col at a roadside layby where we had the first Apollos of the holiday, plus a good range of fritillaries including Weaver’s, Titania’s, Heath and False Heath Fritillary. Wood Whites were also flying here, as were numerous Marbled Whites, with dozens taking up salts and moisture from the roadside.
False Heath Fritillary
Marbled Whites
Of course, evening celebrations were in order as we wrote up the records of the day and checked our photographs. Tonight’s wine list included a bottle of Ventoux, a Vacqueyras, and the remains of last night’s Beames de Venise. We enjoyed the dauphinoise and sausages so much last night that we went for a repeat performance tonight and slept well on bellies full of wine, food and the satisfaction of that Sudeten Ringlet life-tick!
Part Two to follow
A French Finale – July 2023
Re: A French Finale – July 2023
Part Two
Friday 28th July
This morning we left behind our delightful base at Froges and headed north-east towards Bourg-Saint-Maurice, our third base. But first we drove up to a ski resort where we hoped to find our next main target species, another Erebia that would be a lifer for us both if we could locate it. Again, the weather was rather overcast, with just occasional bright spells, but this is of course perfect weather for photography, at least in theory, if you can actually find the butterflies. We soon had a few Erebias take to the air, but they turned out to be Scotch Argus and Large Ringlet. I had spotted something that looked a little different and just as I was homing in for a picture, Bob, who was about 15 metres downstream from me, called out “Pete?” There was a certain inflexion in his voice that I have come to recognise over the years – he was onto something different. But so was I, and it turns out we had both simultaneously found our first ever Mnestra’s Ringlets. They were flying along the edge of a ski slope, where scrubby areas preceded the pines. We saw about a dozen of them, a great introduction to another lifer.
Habitat of Mnestra
Mnestra Ringlet
There was much else of interest up here, including several dozen Silver-spotted Skippers, Silver-studded, Common and Mazarine Blues, Mountain Argus, Sooty and Purple-edged Coppers, Queen of Spain, Dark Green, Niobe, Shepherd’s and Weaver’s Fritillaries, a few mint Swallowtails and a solitary Mountain Clouded Yellow, and we spent most of the day here, but overall numbers still seemed very low compared to previous trips out to the French Alps. Still, successes were coming thick and fast, with three lifers in the bag for me now. The eternal pessimist lurking in the back of my mind was beginning to doubt that we could continue such a winning streak for much longer. Damn that pessimist – he was about to jinx us!
Mountain Clouded Yellow
Niobe Fritillary
Purple-edged Copper
Shepherd’s Fritillary
Silver-spotted Skippers in cop
Swallowtail
Our accommodation here was in a lovely little village by the name of Vulmix. We stay in various degrees of decadence during our travels. When I say degrees of decadence, think bottom end of the spectrum rather than the top. As chief driver and organiser I always get the best bedroom, and Bob often has to make do with a sofa bed, which to be fair he usually doesn’t object to, but tonight he landed up in the sofa bed from hell. Sofa bed is too flowery a descriptor. This was a pull-out wooden box beneath a couch. It was, basically, a coffin. The poor lad did not sleep well for the next two nights.
Saturday 29th July
Today was earmarked as a day of rest and reminiscence. The plan was to revisit the Lac de Roselend, a site from which Bob and I both had golden memories of a wonderful holiday way back in 2005 when we still had all our own teeth and most of our hair colour. This was the place where we both had our first encounters with Apollos, Mountain Clouded Yellows, Damon Blues and a whole host of other Montagne delights. In our memories it was a paradise full of amazing wildflowers and abundant insect-life. They say you should never go back. We should have listened to them. What we found was heart-breaking. The hillsides above the lake where we spent such cherished times 18 years ago were now private property – no entry. The wildflowers were non-existent. The whole landscape had been grazed to death. We were close to tears. There was not a butterfly to be seen. Tragic.
We visited another site just down the road near the Cormet de Rosalend where I had previously seen Blind Ringlet. I really needed a decent shot of this species, but there was not a sniff of pharte to be had - I know I’ve used that gag before, sorry – and it’s not entirely accurate either. We had dined on a wholesome Cassoulet the previous evening and there was a degree of air pollution going on up there. It’s wise to remain aware of the wind direction in such circumstances as these; another seldom discussed hazard of European butterflying…
Cormet de Roselend
One butterfly that did cause confusion was the Erebia pictured below (no underside pic unfortunately as it Foxtrot Oscared before we got a chance of a glimpse). Bob reckons it’s an aberrant Almond-eyed. I can see where he is coming from, but the complete lack of any white pupils in the ocelli is causing me concern with that diagnosis. I am wondering if it could be manto? Any thoughts from the Erebia maestros would be very welcome! It was taken at 1960m in damp grassland; other confirmed Erebias flying there were alberganus, melampus and cassioides.
Erebia for ID
Before leaving this area due to the incoming inclement weather we did briefly wander through an area that had escaped the bovine brutality, and here we found something reminiscent of the former glory of the Lac de Roselend, a patchy area of flower rich grassland and scrub, which on a sunny day may well have yielded all manner of species. But we had to admit defeat as the rain came on strongly. An early start on the wine was called for, followed by another night for Bob enduring hellish nightmares about premature burial!
Sunday 30th July
Today we were pushing our luck. Our target species was none other than the Cranberry Fritillary, which had by all accounts been on the wing several weeks earlier at some locations. The drive up to our destination was long and winding, with one or two tense moments and a motorcycle accident not far in front of us, but we finally arrived on site and there were plenty of fritillaries about – lots of Lesser Marbled, and Titania’s, a few Weaver’s and False Heath, and smaller numbers of Dark Green and Silver-washed Fritillaries, but no sign of our target. We had our first failure in the bag!
Lesser Marbled Fritillary
Titanias Fritillary
Weaver’s Fritillary
But there was unexpected compensation in the form of Yellow-spotted Ringlets. I saw my first manto last year in the French Pyrenees, the rather drab form constans, so it was great to meet up with the nominate subspecies and see the full glory of a proper Yellow-spotted Ringlet female underside – tremendous! A half-lifer for me and a lifer for Bob.
Yellow-spotted Ringlet
Once it became clear that aquilonaris was not going to show up, we headed off to another mountain site where we hoped to find Water Ringlet. Mountain Habitat
It was a lovely spot with a reasonable mix of Apollos, Blues, Fritillaries, Skippers and Erebias, but not the one that we sought. Another failure! But we had another chance at pronoe tomorrow.
Monday 31st July
Who visits a massive Ski Resort in the middle of summer? Apparently, thousands of French do! Our destination today involved parking up in a huge car park and walking through a pedestrian-only maze of ski chalets, bars and restaurants. Once out the other side of the resort we saw hardly a soul, but the resort itself was heaving with people!
Again, we were on a hunt for Water Ringlet, and again, it eluded us, but not before we had examined hundreds of potential candidates, all of which turned out to be either Large Ringlet, Yellow-spotted Ringlet, Scotch Argus, Almond-eyed Ringlet or Piedmont Ringlet. But this was a lovely site and was one of the richest areas that we visited all week. It was the only place that we found Alpine Heath, there was a good selection of Blues, including Damon, Silver-studded, Idas, Mazarine, Chalkhill, Adonis and Common; Skippers included Olive, Dingy, Small, Large and Silver-spotted and we also had Large Wall Brown, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, several fritillaries and dramatic overhead views of a Lammergeier. All in all, a pretty decent day!
Alpine Heath
Damon Blue
Dark Green Fritillary
Tuesday 1st August
For our last full day, we decided to end as we began, with a return visit to the marais near Geneva Airport. I was cautiously optimistic that we might still be in with a chance of a male Scarce Large Blue, even though we were now in August. We had so far only seen females. So, we returned, and again the weather was overcast. But that did not stop play, and within ten minutes of being on site a Phengaris took flight in front of me. I initially assumed that it was SLB again, but Bob was being more objective and pointed out that it was very dark and there was no blue visible in flight. He was correct. I had taken an underside shot and not paid sufficient attention to detail! It was in fact an Alcon Blue, and twenty minutes later I found a few Marsh Gentian flowers with Alcon Blue eggs on them. This was actually another half-lifer for me, as prior to this I had only seen P.alcon rebeli – here was my first P.alcon alcon. More joy!
Alcon Blue
Gentians with Alcon Blue eggs
But the day got even better an hour later when we were looking on a different part of the marais. I heard a distant “Pete?” from Bob - again, that inflection – then I thought I heard him say something like “Dusky Large Blue!” – surely not. He had been following what he originally thought was a Sooty Copper, only to find when it landed that it was indeed nausithous! Several mint fresh examples of Oberthur’s Grizzled Skipper also put in appearances.
Dusky Large Blue
Oberthur’s Grizzled Skipper
This was a splendid finale. Who would envisage spending a week in France and seeing 3 out of the 4 Phengaris species, only missing out on by far the easiest to find – arion? Crazy times, folks!
All in all, this was a hugely enjoyable tour around this beautiful area of France. We had a ball. The butterflies, despite being in lower-than-expected numbers in many areas, were a delight; we saw several species that neither of us have seen for a few years, and of course the lifers were most welcome additions to our lists and experiences. Thanks are due to John V and Roger G for location advise, and special thanks to John G for taking the time to check things out in advance of our arrival and for meeting up on site for a memorable morning.
I shall take a brief respite and return to some UK Butterflying, before the planning for next year begins again in earnest…
Friday 28th July
This morning we left behind our delightful base at Froges and headed north-east towards Bourg-Saint-Maurice, our third base. But first we drove up to a ski resort where we hoped to find our next main target species, another Erebia that would be a lifer for us both if we could locate it. Again, the weather was rather overcast, with just occasional bright spells, but this is of course perfect weather for photography, at least in theory, if you can actually find the butterflies. We soon had a few Erebias take to the air, but they turned out to be Scotch Argus and Large Ringlet. I had spotted something that looked a little different and just as I was homing in for a picture, Bob, who was about 15 metres downstream from me, called out “Pete?” There was a certain inflexion in his voice that I have come to recognise over the years – he was onto something different. But so was I, and it turns out we had both simultaneously found our first ever Mnestra’s Ringlets. They were flying along the edge of a ski slope, where scrubby areas preceded the pines. We saw about a dozen of them, a great introduction to another lifer.
Habitat of Mnestra
Mnestra Ringlet
There was much else of interest up here, including several dozen Silver-spotted Skippers, Silver-studded, Common and Mazarine Blues, Mountain Argus, Sooty and Purple-edged Coppers, Queen of Spain, Dark Green, Niobe, Shepherd’s and Weaver’s Fritillaries, a few mint Swallowtails and a solitary Mountain Clouded Yellow, and we spent most of the day here, but overall numbers still seemed very low compared to previous trips out to the French Alps. Still, successes were coming thick and fast, with three lifers in the bag for me now. The eternal pessimist lurking in the back of my mind was beginning to doubt that we could continue such a winning streak for much longer. Damn that pessimist – he was about to jinx us!
Mountain Clouded Yellow
Niobe Fritillary
Purple-edged Copper
Shepherd’s Fritillary
Silver-spotted Skippers in cop
Swallowtail
Our accommodation here was in a lovely little village by the name of Vulmix. We stay in various degrees of decadence during our travels. When I say degrees of decadence, think bottom end of the spectrum rather than the top. As chief driver and organiser I always get the best bedroom, and Bob often has to make do with a sofa bed, which to be fair he usually doesn’t object to, but tonight he landed up in the sofa bed from hell. Sofa bed is too flowery a descriptor. This was a pull-out wooden box beneath a couch. It was, basically, a coffin. The poor lad did not sleep well for the next two nights.
Saturday 29th July
Today was earmarked as a day of rest and reminiscence. The plan was to revisit the Lac de Roselend, a site from which Bob and I both had golden memories of a wonderful holiday way back in 2005 when we still had all our own teeth and most of our hair colour. This was the place where we both had our first encounters with Apollos, Mountain Clouded Yellows, Damon Blues and a whole host of other Montagne delights. In our memories it was a paradise full of amazing wildflowers and abundant insect-life. They say you should never go back. We should have listened to them. What we found was heart-breaking. The hillsides above the lake where we spent such cherished times 18 years ago were now private property – no entry. The wildflowers were non-existent. The whole landscape had been grazed to death. We were close to tears. There was not a butterfly to be seen. Tragic.
We visited another site just down the road near the Cormet de Rosalend where I had previously seen Blind Ringlet. I really needed a decent shot of this species, but there was not a sniff of pharte to be had - I know I’ve used that gag before, sorry – and it’s not entirely accurate either. We had dined on a wholesome Cassoulet the previous evening and there was a degree of air pollution going on up there. It’s wise to remain aware of the wind direction in such circumstances as these; another seldom discussed hazard of European butterflying…
Cormet de Roselend
One butterfly that did cause confusion was the Erebia pictured below (no underside pic unfortunately as it Foxtrot Oscared before we got a chance of a glimpse). Bob reckons it’s an aberrant Almond-eyed. I can see where he is coming from, but the complete lack of any white pupils in the ocelli is causing me concern with that diagnosis. I am wondering if it could be manto? Any thoughts from the Erebia maestros would be very welcome! It was taken at 1960m in damp grassland; other confirmed Erebias flying there were alberganus, melampus and cassioides.
Erebia for ID
Before leaving this area due to the incoming inclement weather we did briefly wander through an area that had escaped the bovine brutality, and here we found something reminiscent of the former glory of the Lac de Roselend, a patchy area of flower rich grassland and scrub, which on a sunny day may well have yielded all manner of species. But we had to admit defeat as the rain came on strongly. An early start on the wine was called for, followed by another night for Bob enduring hellish nightmares about premature burial!
Sunday 30th July
Today we were pushing our luck. Our target species was none other than the Cranberry Fritillary, which had by all accounts been on the wing several weeks earlier at some locations. The drive up to our destination was long and winding, with one or two tense moments and a motorcycle accident not far in front of us, but we finally arrived on site and there were plenty of fritillaries about – lots of Lesser Marbled, and Titania’s, a few Weaver’s and False Heath, and smaller numbers of Dark Green and Silver-washed Fritillaries, but no sign of our target. We had our first failure in the bag!
Lesser Marbled Fritillary
Titanias Fritillary
Weaver’s Fritillary
But there was unexpected compensation in the form of Yellow-spotted Ringlets. I saw my first manto last year in the French Pyrenees, the rather drab form constans, so it was great to meet up with the nominate subspecies and see the full glory of a proper Yellow-spotted Ringlet female underside – tremendous! A half-lifer for me and a lifer for Bob.
Yellow-spotted Ringlet
Once it became clear that aquilonaris was not going to show up, we headed off to another mountain site where we hoped to find Water Ringlet. Mountain Habitat
It was a lovely spot with a reasonable mix of Apollos, Blues, Fritillaries, Skippers and Erebias, but not the one that we sought. Another failure! But we had another chance at pronoe tomorrow.
Monday 31st July
Who visits a massive Ski Resort in the middle of summer? Apparently, thousands of French do! Our destination today involved parking up in a huge car park and walking through a pedestrian-only maze of ski chalets, bars and restaurants. Once out the other side of the resort we saw hardly a soul, but the resort itself was heaving with people!
Again, we were on a hunt for Water Ringlet, and again, it eluded us, but not before we had examined hundreds of potential candidates, all of which turned out to be either Large Ringlet, Yellow-spotted Ringlet, Scotch Argus, Almond-eyed Ringlet or Piedmont Ringlet. But this was a lovely site and was one of the richest areas that we visited all week. It was the only place that we found Alpine Heath, there was a good selection of Blues, including Damon, Silver-studded, Idas, Mazarine, Chalkhill, Adonis and Common; Skippers included Olive, Dingy, Small, Large and Silver-spotted and we also had Large Wall Brown, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, several fritillaries and dramatic overhead views of a Lammergeier. All in all, a pretty decent day!
Alpine Heath
Damon Blue
Dark Green Fritillary
Tuesday 1st August
For our last full day, we decided to end as we began, with a return visit to the marais near Geneva Airport. I was cautiously optimistic that we might still be in with a chance of a male Scarce Large Blue, even though we were now in August. We had so far only seen females. So, we returned, and again the weather was overcast. But that did not stop play, and within ten minutes of being on site a Phengaris took flight in front of me. I initially assumed that it was SLB again, but Bob was being more objective and pointed out that it was very dark and there was no blue visible in flight. He was correct. I had taken an underside shot and not paid sufficient attention to detail! It was in fact an Alcon Blue, and twenty minutes later I found a few Marsh Gentian flowers with Alcon Blue eggs on them. This was actually another half-lifer for me, as prior to this I had only seen P.alcon rebeli – here was my first P.alcon alcon. More joy!
Alcon Blue
Gentians with Alcon Blue eggs
But the day got even better an hour later when we were looking on a different part of the marais. I heard a distant “Pete?” from Bob - again, that inflection – then I thought I heard him say something like “Dusky Large Blue!” – surely not. He had been following what he originally thought was a Sooty Copper, only to find when it landed that it was indeed nausithous! Several mint fresh examples of Oberthur’s Grizzled Skipper also put in appearances.
Dusky Large Blue
Oberthur’s Grizzled Skipper
This was a splendid finale. Who would envisage spending a week in France and seeing 3 out of the 4 Phengaris species, only missing out on by far the easiest to find – arion? Crazy times, folks!
All in all, this was a hugely enjoyable tour around this beautiful area of France. We had a ball. The butterflies, despite being in lower-than-expected numbers in many areas, were a delight; we saw several species that neither of us have seen for a few years, and of course the lifers were most welcome additions to our lists and experiences. Thanks are due to John V and Roger G for location advise, and special thanks to John G for taking the time to check things out in advance of our arrival and for meeting up on site for a memorable morning.
I shall take a brief respite and return to some UK Butterflying, before the planning for next year begins again in earnest…
Last edited by petesmith on Tue Aug 08, 2023 9:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: A French Finale – July 2023
Well done, Pete. I've loved reading this.
Teleius is one of my top ten 'must-sees' in Europe and I'll get round to it one day.
It has indeed been a grim year for butterflies in France (and in much, if not all, of Europe to be honest).
I keep wondering how many years are left for we enthusiasts to enjoy this indulgence - thirty? twenty? ten?
Strimming and over-grazing remain two evil enemies and if the human psyche was willing then it would be an easy win to soften the impact (and practice) of both.
However, there are always other 'priorities' which sideline environmental improvements and as I get older I realise that nothing is ever likely to change.
Perhaps I need to search for these 'must-sees' sooner rather than later, because later may prove to be too late.![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
Teleius is one of my top ten 'must-sees' in Europe and I'll get round to it one day.
It has indeed been a grim year for butterflies in France (and in much, if not all, of Europe to be honest).
I keep wondering how many years are left for we enthusiasts to enjoy this indulgence - thirty? twenty? ten?
Strimming and over-grazing remain two evil enemies and if the human psyche was willing then it would be an easy win to soften the impact (and practice) of both.
However, there are always other 'priorities' which sideline environmental improvements and as I get older I realise that nothing is ever likely to change.
Perhaps I need to search for these 'must-sees' sooner rather than later, because later may prove to be too late.
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
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Re: A French Finale – July 2023
Always interesting to read your reports Pete, sorry to hear you didn't see pronoe at the ski resort ![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
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Re: A French Finale – July 2023
What a fantastic Maculinea fest. Where are we going next?
Can anyone help with the Fritillary on the left in the picture below.
Taken on the way down from the Col de Glandon. Looks like Grisons to me, but I may be wrong.
Thanks
Can anyone help with the Fritillary on the left in the picture below.
Taken on the way down from the Col de Glandon. Looks like Grisons to me, but I may be wrong.
Thanks
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Re: A French Finale – July 2023
Hi Pete. I can feel the joy! For your sudetica, a good upperside trick is to look for the 'extra' apical dark spot on the forewing. In my experience, it is always present in sudetica and never in melampus, though the books say there are exceptions in both directions. There's probably some confirmation bias in my observations. But at the very least it is a useful guide and I have always found it to agree with the underside. The upperside you show has the extra spot, albeit rather diminished. Where I see sudetica in Switzerland, both it and melampus fly.
I am confident your Erebia for ID is manto. I immediately recognised it, even before reading your text. Shame about the pronoe. It's one of the later Erebias. As it happens, I photographed one on my local mountain this afternoon ...
As for cecropia's Melitaea: it certainly looks compatible with varia but I couldn't have called it on that view alone. What in particular makes you think it is a different species from the others?
Guy
I am confident your Erebia for ID is manto. I immediately recognised it, even before reading your text. Shame about the pronoe. It's one of the later Erebias. As it happens, I photographed one on my local mountain this afternoon ...
As for cecropia's Melitaea: it certainly looks compatible with varia but I couldn't have called it on that view alone. What in particular makes you think it is a different species from the others?
Guy
Guy's Butterflies: https://www.guypadfield.com
The Butterflies of Villars-Gryon : https://www.guypadfield.com/villarsgryonbook.html
The Butterflies of Villars-Gryon : https://www.guypadfield.com/villarsgryonbook.html
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Re: A French Finale – July 2023
Regarding the Fritillary, It is the positioning of the underside light patches that look different to the other two. It also looks smaller.
Bob
Bob
Re: A French Finale – July 2023
Thanks David - don't leave it too long - it's an essential life-tick!
Thanks John - never mind, it's one for another year!John Vergo wrote: ↑Tue Aug 08, 2023 1:19 pm Always interesting to read your reports Pete, sorry to hear you didn't see pronoe at the ski resort![]()
Thanks Guy. My gut feeling was manto from the off, but good to have your confirmation.
Re: A French Finale – July 2023
Thanks for the write up as ever. Always a good read.
Re: A French Finale – July 2023
My pleasure, Paul.