David M

[David M]

Hautes Pyrenees, 13th-20th July cont…

Tracking down Gavarnie Ringlet is tough.

In flight, it is tricky to tell apart from the slightly smaller Mountain Ringlet and the slightly larger Bright-Eyed Ringlet.

It doesn’t help that these Erebia don’t settle very often, and that when they do it isn’t usually for long enough to get a sufficiently good look to be sure of identity.

So, I spent nearly two hours high up on Col des Tentes with Piedmont Ringlets everywhere, looking for something with a silver dusted underside.
Eventually, I found one, and it was a female:

The females are quite beautifully marked and much more prone to settle than the males:

With that, all the 5 main targets had been successfully recorded on this trip: Lefebvre’s, False Dewy, Pyrenean Brassy, Gavarnie Ringlet and Gavarnie Blue. Additionally, the constans form of Yellow-Spotted Ringlet was seen, but only in small numbers.

I wasn’t sure this would be possible, as there is practically a month between the emergence of the first (False Dewy) to the flight period of the last (Gavarnie Ringlet).

The season had been turned upside down due to conditions earlier in the year and the mid-June species were late emerging but the later ones were only a little behind.

For once, the crazy weather in western Europe this year was an advantage.

[David M]

Hautes Pyrenees, 13th-20th July cont…

In summary, this was a thoroughly enjoyable week. The weather was near perfect; sunny every day bar one and nice temperatures in the high twenties Celsius.

The range of butterflies was fabulous, with the day spent on the Spanish side helping lift the total into three figures.

The morning near Aragnouet in amongst the rare and localised Erebia was probably my second best of the year, after the amazing first day in Romania where a range of desirables were seen in a small area of woodland.

To notch up more species here than I did in the French Alps 3 weeks before is not something I thought possible.

Here is the full list:

1. Tufted Marbled Skipper
2. Marbled Skipper
3. Dingy Skipper
4. Large Skipper
5. Lulworth Skipper
6. Essex Skipper
7. Small Skipper
8. Large Grizzled Skipper
9. Alpine Grizzled Skipper
10. Oberthur’s Grizzled Skipper
11. Safflower Skipper
12. Southern Grizzled Skipper
13. Olive Skipper
14. Red Underwing Skipper
15. Geranium Bronze
16. Brown Argus
17. Mountain Argus
18. Ripart’s Anomalous Blue
19. Holly Blue
20. Small Blue
21. Mazarine Blue
22. Long-Tailed Blue
23. Silver Studded Blue
24. Idas Blue
25. Large Blue
26. Glandon Blue
27. Gavarnie Blue
28. Adonis Blue
29. Chalkhill Blue
30. Spanish Chalkhill Blue
31. Turquoise Blue
32. Eros Blue
33. Escher’s Blue
34. Common Blue
35. Chapman’s Blue
36. Purple-Shot Copper
37. Purple-Edged Copper
38. Small Copper
39. Sooty Copper
40. Scarce Copper
41. Spanish Purple Hairstreak
42. Ilex Hairstreak
43. Blue Spot Hairstreak
44. Duke of Burgundy
45. Apollo
46. Clouded Apollo
47. Swallowtail
48. Scarce Swallowtail
49. Iberian Scarce Swallowtail
50. Small Tortoiseshell
51. White Admiral
52. Southern White Admiral
53. Map
54. Comma
55. Red Admiral
56. High Brown Fritillary
57. Dark Green Fritillary
58. Silver Washed Fritillary
59. Weaver’s Fritillary
60. Pearl Bordered Fritillary
61. Shepherd’s Fritillary
62. Lesser Marbled Fritillary
63. Queen of Spain Fritillary
64. Heath Fritillary
65. False Heath Fritillary
66. Spotted Fritillary
67. Meadow Fritillary
68. Knapweed Fritillary
69. Provencal Fritillary
70. Orange Tip
71. Black Veined White
72. Mountain Dappled White
73. Peak White
74. Bath White
75. Berger’s Clouded Yellow
76. Clouded Yellow
77. Mountain Clouded Yellow
78. Cleopatra
79. Brimstone
80. Wood White
81. Large White
82. Small White
83. Green Veined White
84. Ringlet
85. Great Banded Grayling
86. Rock Grayling
87. Grayling
88. Pearly Heath
89. Dusky Heath
90. Chestnut Heath
91. Small Heath
92. False Dewy Ringlet
93. Lefebvre’s Ringlet
94. Pyrenean Brassy Ringlet
95. Western Brassy Ringlet
96. Gavarnie Ringlet
97. Piedmont Ringlet
98. Bright-Eyed Ringlet
99. Mountain Ringlet
100. Yellow-Spotted Ringlet
101. Large Wall Brown
102. Wall Brown
103. Meadow Brown
104. Marbled White
105. Speckled Wood
106. Gatekeeper
107. Spanish Gatekeeper
108. Southern Gatekeeper