Identification of European butterflies

[Part timer]

Hi

I've got a few piccies from a recent trip to Spain that I've had a go at identifying, but wouldn't mind some opinions for the experts. Is this forum strictly UK only, or can I submit them here? If the former, any recommendations on where to go for help?

[Dave R]

Not that I'll be able to help you with ids I've seen plenty of European queries (including one from me) so post away I would see

[MikeOxon]

You'll see there is a specific sub-category for 'overseas' in the general forums, so I would post there - it's a pretty lively area!

Personally, I find coping with the limited number of UK species is hard enough but I am gradually getting tempted by all those Alpine and Pyrenean species!

Mike

[Part timer]

OK, I'll have to do this in 2 goes because of message size restrictions. I've put my own thoughts against each.

We took a day out from a holiday on the Costa Dourada to drive up into the Prades hills, not far inland from Tarragona in mid July and all the photos were taken from a couple of random roadside stops in hillside areas, with lots of wild flowers and some scrub. It's a lovely area, with lots of butterflies around, some of which I had encountered before, such as Cleopatra and Scarce Swallowtail; a number I hadn't, but were reasonably easy to identify, like Pearly Heath and Southern Gatekeeper.

For the rest for which we got photos, I have been through the Collins guide and come to some conclusions, some of which I'm more sure about than others, but any thoughts would be welcome. I've put my own thoughts by each photo.

[Part timer]

Thanks for the tip on moving to the overseas forum, I'll try re-posting there....

[JKT]

I agree with the Boloria dia. I've also found M. galathea, where its not supposed to be according to Collins. That was a couple of days away from Santiago, so still a Northern location.

[Padfield]

The IDs look good to me, including the Provençal fritillaries, which are certainly that.

It is difficult to be conclusive about marbled white/Iberian marbled white (galathea/lachesis)from the underside. An upperside shot would settle the question. I strongly suspect that is Iberian marbled white (lachesis). I have found individuals with very dark undersides in Spain.



Here is a different individual, from the upperside (at the same site). The cell is clear to the base and there are 'bootsraps' on the upperside hindwing:



Guy

[Part timer]

Thanks for your vote of confidence in my identification skills! - (and thanks incidentally for your website which I've referenced many times when trying to identify species I've seen on various holidays).

Last photo attached.

On the subject of the Marbled White, this particular individual was in the town of Prades and I don't remember seeing much of the upperside. There were other Marbled Whites away from the town which were very skittish and difficult to photograph, but appeared to be larger and whiter than the UK version - I was pretty confident that these were Iberian

[Padfield]

Thank you.

I'm sure you're right with that false ilex too. One feature it shows nicely is the uniformity in size of the orange/red spots as they approach the leading edge of the hindwing. Compare that with ilicis, in which they typically get smaller:



It's not infallible, but a useful thing to be aware of when small details are not clear.

Guy