Butterflies of Var, Southern France

[Denise]

I just have to say Roger, that you latest highlights on your web site are fantastic.
Keep up the excellent work.

Denise

[Paul]

What a brilliant set of highlight photos.. exceptional!

[Dave McCormick]

Lovley highlights photos Roger, - my favourite have to be Lesser Purple Emperor (Apatura ilia) photos, and all photos in Pieridae and Papilionidae (whites, yellows, swallowtails)

[Vince Massimo]

Roger,

Love the highlights photos, they are exceptional

Also your site is now becoming an essential reference point for European species. Perhaps you and Guy could collaborate some time in the future to produce a definitive European database. Now that would really be something to behold

Cheers,

Vince

[Pete Eeles]

Roger's and Guy's websites are both superb!

Perhaps you and Guy could collaborate some time in the future to produce a definitive European database. Now that would really be something to behold

Have you seen: http://www.leps.it/

Cheers,

- Pete

[Roger Gibbons]

The definitive European site already exists and is run by Guy’s mate Matt Rowlings. Take a look at this species list - http://eurobutterflies.com/species_index.htm! As I say on the links page on my site, where else are you going to see an Agenjo's Anomalous Blue?

Before I first met Matt last year I had rather assumed that he must be around 70 to have travelled so widely and seen so many species. Wrong! He is only in his thirties but his knowledge is incredible. His butterflying has only been slightly slowed down by marriage and the recent arrival of a young son.

[Pete Eeles]

That is one impressive list, for sure, and I've always been in admiration of Matt's website too!

Anyone any ideas on the definitive website for immature stages? Thinking about it, I guess that's why I like http://www.leps.it/

Cheers,

- Pete

[Matsukaze]

I'd forgotten that I had a few more butterflies I would like some help with the ID, again from my holidays in mid-May.

Pyrgus - 3 different insects but I think they are all malvae. Is it horseshoe vetch that the second insect is perched upon?

Are the next two insects Brimstones or Cleopatras?

[Matsukaze]

Finally a couple of Erebia. The first picture at about 800m, the other two (of the same insect) at - very vaguely - 1000m.

[Dave McCormick]

Think the yellow butterfly is a cleopatra, more rounded than the brimstone, need a second opinion though.

The ringlet might be Erebia palarica (Chapmans Ringlet) it looks most like it, from last underside shot anyway. First I thought it was Erebia oeme (Bright-Eyed Ringlet) but based on size of the spots and marking arounf the spots, I thought it might be the other one, again, another opinion is probably best.

[Mikhail]

I think the skippers are all Grizzled (Pyrgus malvae), the second on Horseshoe Vetch. The Brimstones are G.rhamni. The erebias are Spring Ringlet E.epistygne.

Misha

[Padfield]

Great spring ringlets! That's an iconic butterfly and one I've never seen because I never go south at the right time of year. One year soon I shall do the south of France in time for spring ringlet, Chapman's green hairstreak and southern comma...

I too veer towards Cleopatra for the female brimstone. The wing shape is spot on and in both pictures there is that hint of a yellow streak in the cell, which is often an indicator. The brimstone group is extremely variable and some female Cleopatras have effectively no hook at all (I've seen females like that in Greece) while others are rather pointy. It takes a local expert to be certain... Roger?

Guy

[Mikhail]

Quite right Guy. I was too hasty, and over influenced by the slightly concave line of the forewing leading edge.

Misha

[Roger Gibbons]

I'm travelling somehwere in Lot & Garonne, so don't have any reference books or sites, but I would be confident that these are Cleopatras. Brimstones are noticeably more "pointy" although natural variation means that the two species can sometimes be closer than that shown in the books (as you say, Guy). The forewing costa curvature (and apical "bump") is rather more marked in the Brimstone and quite distinctive when looking at photos of both species alongside each other.

The Cleopatra colouring is quite variable and the male forewing orange is sometimes visible from the underside, sometimes not, and the angle of the light and/or camera angle can make this look quite different. Cleopatra is actually quite (sometimes very) common in the south of France, where it "replaces" Brimstone especially in the south-east region. It is, unusually, a species often easier to ID in flight than from a photo, because the upf orange of the male is quite strikingly visible.

You did well to find Spring Ringlet, Matzukaze, and I would be careful about revealing the location as it is a target of collectors. I have only seen it at one location and I know of several people who have spent many days fruitlessly looking for it. Even harder to get a photo as it never seems to rest.

[Matsukaze]

Thanks folks.

Finding the Spring Ringlets was blind luck, as I was barely aware of the species' existence. At the first site I found it at I was not even looking for butterflies, and only took interest in it when noticing it in flight and mistaking it for a Camberwell Beauty (the pale markings on the edge of the wings confusing me). There were several of them, as Roger says, difficult to photograph through being very flighty and hard to approach.

[Roger Gibbons]

Should anyone be interested, I have just completed the update for the Butterflies of France website (link as below) for 2009, adding several hundred new photos and a few new species pages. There are many question marks, so any comments would be welcome.

2009 has been a good year, I think, for butterflies generally. I have been fortunate to see 175 species in France this year (without having to “cheat” by going to Switzerland) and have now seen 205 of the 240 mainland France species. Of the six new species seen for the first time (“life-ticks”), four were wetland species seen in the Jura and I am indebted to a French colleague without whose precise information I would never have found them.

My 2009 highlight has undoubtedly been Emperors; I have seen Lesser Purple Emperors in four different locations and Purple Emperors in two, always with an amazing display of flashing purple which I have tried to capture on film, although only video really does it justice – so I would recommend Clive Burrows’ excellent DVD of European butterflies which includes Emperors, which is available from BC Herts & Middx branch for £12.99, details here (scroll down a little): http://www.hertsmiddx-butterflies.org.u ... s-new.html

Roger

[Roger Gibbons]

Hi everyone,

The weather in Var (south of France) has been unseasonably cold and wet and is forecast to continue like this for the next week or so. The butterfly season is about two weeks behind schedule and I wonder what happens to those butterflies that emerged in the warm week at the end of April only to get hit by the next ten days of cold and wet weather (not to mention the odd burst of mistral-scale winds) - do they just go into cold storage until it warms up again or do they perish?

The main story so far has been the emergence of hibernating Camberwell Beauties of which I have now seen ten or more in eight localities in the oak woods (maquis) across Var. This is far more than the usual two or three and they are magnificent even when battered though hibernation. The blue markings just jump out, and their soaring, gliding flight is incredibly spectacular.

One upside of the weather is that the butterflies emerging now are not only pristine but also quite amenable to being photographed (normally almost impossible when they are hyperactive in 25-30C temperatures). As there have only been sporadic periods of sun, they tend to settle when it clouds over and provide the opportunity to get close with the camera.

Here are a few photos: Camberwell Beauty, Marsh Fritillary, and Spotted Fritillary - is this the most artistic underside of any species?

[Jack Harrison]

First time I have seen Roger’s website and pictures. Wow!

I think I might as well give up now.

Jack

[Padfield]

Camberwell beauty is story of the spring here in Switzerland too - I think the unbroken cold winter was good for them. I've seen them at four different random sites so far, including one today, and this is without making a trip to any of my 'hotspots' (no need, this year).

Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

The Camberwell Beauties are still out in goodish numbers in this part of the world (Var), which seems exceptionally late (they are usually seen only in April) but the poor weather here has retarded the flight seasons of nearly all species.

On 16 May I saw two hibernated (hence the battered state) CBs engaged in an aerobatic display; they occasionally come to ground but if disturbed they soar back to the tree canopy in what seems like a fraction of a second.

One settled regularly on a fencepost which it used as a vantage point to fend off all-comers. As I was standing almost motionless, it also landed on my head, which probably does look like a fencepost viewed from above.

It also settled (photo 20096) on an electrified fence! There was a film called “Bird on a Wire” a while ago, so I guess this is the sequel “Butterfly on a Wire”!

In passing, the US name for this butterfly is, I think, Morning Cloak. I wonder if the cloak-like pose of the CB I posted earlier (wings rather folded back) influenced its US name?