Lysandra

[Padfield]

A question for Roger and others who know hispana well.

I saw a lot of albicans aragonensis in Aragón. These looked very white in flight and pale silvery blue when settled. The discal area of the forewing had very fluffy androconial scales, like a white towel. Here are a few shots:




(Those androconia look smoother)



The undersides were very pale:





At one site, though, there were several individuals that looked distinctly blue in flight - almost like a chalkhill blue - though otherwise very similar to aragonensis, and these had darker undersides. I thought at the time I was looking at hispana but am not so sure now. I think they might have been just darker forms of aragonensis. Here are the upperside and underside of the same individual:





My inclination is to think I didn't see hispana (and if in doubt I always apply Occam's razor). Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

Based on the hispana I see in Provence, I would guess your last two are not hispana. But hispana flies in the region where you were and populations do vary, and I make these comments with the caveat that I have never seen hispana outside Var.

The upperside looks too pale, hispana generally being quite close to coridon but paler and duller, with a less clean feel to it than the very clean coridon, and with the yellowish tinge especially toward the upf apex.

The underside does not look like hispana either, for several reasons:
1. the colour contrast between the forewing and hindwing: often the male hispana has only a mild variation in ground colour, sometimes almost none at all, but yours seems very marked. Your unh is quite deeply brown, which I have not found in hispana.
2. the unh lunules are very deep red, to my mind much closer to coridon than hispana.
3. the unf marginal lunules are usually large, smudgy and have a slightly ghosted appearance in hispana. Yours look fairly small and neat by comparison.
From the underside alone, I might have guessed coridon.

Roger