Swiss ID's Part 3

[Paul Wetton]

Time for the next installment of Swiss butterfly ID's.

Firstly a Boloria fritillary found at the high end of the Val d'Herens. I suspect this to be napaea with more parallel spotting and thin discal lines but after previous photos I'm less certain again. Will I ever get these correct. More pointers required please.

1.

Suspect napaea?

The next photos were again from the eastern side of the Val d'Herens at around 2000m I guess and the first is an Erebia which I think is Small Mountain Ringlet.

2.

epiphron?

3.

epiphron?

Next a dreaded or should I say exciting Pyrgus. The latter I think. Could this be an Olive Skipper, I know I thought so at the time. Unfortunately the uns isn't well shown but I have it on film I think.

4.

serratulae?

The next was flying alongside the above and I thought initially to be the same species but I now have my doubts and go back to carlinae again. Ups only I'm afraid.

5.

carlinae?

Finally from this site I'm fairly certain this is a female pales Shepherd's Fritillary sitting with an Alpine Heath.

6.

pales?

7.

pales?

The next lot are all Erebia and from a spot close to where Guy lives.

The first I have down as a fresh Bright-eyed Ringlet. It definitely had black underside tips of the antennae. I have a photo but not on here.

8.

oeme?

9.

oeme?

The next is ups only but uns were matching with regard to orange and black spotting so I plumped for Lesser Mountain Ringlet

10.

melampus?

The last three pictures I think are all the same species probably males and females. I think Yellow spotted Ringlet manto. Could the last one be eriphyle.

11.

manto?

12.

manto?

13.

manto?

I'll leave it at that as I have a few more for later.

Many thanks again.

[Padfield]

I'm confident 1. is napaea, from the position (and shape) of the line in s2, which joins v3 well away from the cell (and is slightly outwardly curved). Those are both classic features.

I agree the Erebia is most likely epiphron. What a variable species this is in the Alps!! I'm not 100% though. Although the forewing shape looks more like epiphron than melampus, the hindwing shape is more like melampus than epiphron. And the markings and colour are sort of half way between!! Video of the insect will help, because angle illusions will be eliminated, so the true wing shape should be apparent.

The first Pyrgus doesn't look like serratulae to me. The uns of a fresh insect like this are immediately recognisable if it is serratulae, being quite unlike any other skipper (except, curiously, carthami, in some instances and from some angles, but carthami is of course huge). So no need to speculate there - the video will be decisive.

The next one does indeed look like carlinae.

Pales for sure!! And gardetta, of course.

Lovely fresh oeme - brilliant!

In 10 if the uns matched the ups it must be melampus, I agree.

All the last three are indeed manto, as you feared!!

These pictures show the key features of eriphyle:





The underside of the forewing is golden towards the base. The spots on the underside hindwing are even except for the spot in s4, which is larger. Yours show the classic manto asymmetry above and below s4.

Guy

[Paul Wetton]

As always Guy many thanks for helping out. I am going through all the video of uncertain ID at the moment and I'll include any that crop up in the photos that are judged as uncertain by yourself. I know I saw serratulae up there as the underside struck me straight away. Maybe I didn't catch it on film.
Looking at your pics of eriphyle I may have some on film but I've probably got them down as Blind Ringlet.
I have one more lot of pictures and then to the video which I'll post on a separate web page with a link from UKButs.

Thanks again