Still an exceptionally early year

[Sylvie_h]

Hi Roger and Guy,

The picture is from the underside, it has a whittish almost greyish background with small cell spots and faint orange markings on the unh and is blue at the base. The unf has some markings but not very clear. I don't really like posting pictures on the internet (I always think that they are not good enough) and the second problem is that I am still working with slides. However, I am also curious to know what it is and as I have a scanner at home, I will plug it in the computer this week end and will post a picture of this butterfly. If I were you I would not get too excited!! I am sure that you will recognize it straight away as a very common butterfly and probably something I have completely mis-identified!!

Roger, will you be in Savoie or Hte Savoie in July? If you are driving from the Var, I would recommend that you take the Route Napoléon (starting from Grasse) and stop on the way for butterflies.The scenery is also very pretty and the driving not too stressful. I will be in Hte Savoie 3rd week of July, I can give you some locations for butterflies if you wish although I would rather do this by email.

Sylvie

[Padfield]

Sylvie sent Roger and me a picture of her butterfly and we both independently identified it as Chapman's blue, Agrodiaetus thersites. I said I would post a cropped and compressed version of the picture here and comment on it, but I was busy and forgot! Apologies for the delay. Anyway, here is the butterfly in question:



Things to note are the vestigial orange on the hindwing, ruling out iolas, the white pd flash on the hindwing, ruling out both amandus and iolas, and the lack of a cell spot on the forewing, suggesting it is not common blue (Polyommatus icarus), though one should always be aware of the possibility of icarinus. Combined, these features point to Escher's blue (Agrodiaetus escheri), Chapman's blue or icarinus. The big clue then is the plant the butterfly is on - sainfoin. This is the foodplant of Chapman's blue and the species is seldom seen far from the plant (though it will take nectar at other plants). Locality and jizz further confirm Chapman's. I don't have any real doubt myself, though it is generally foolish to be too dogmatic with polyommatine uns!

Guy