Spanish Greylings any help with ID please

[johnb]

These where taken in the mountians near Ronda Southern Spain in the first week of October , the land was very dry and stony . All these greylings together with other butterflies came down to a overflowing cattle trough. Any help with ID would be more than welcome.

John

[Padfield]

Hi John,

You're certainly right with the first four pictures - striped grayling, striped grayling, grayling, grayling. The fifth picture shows a tree grayling and my instinctive reaction was also tree grayling for the last, though it's very pale and not at all typical. But I've never seen hermit - it's a jinx butterfly for me - and although this isn't what I'd expect it to look like I can't rule it out. It would, of course, be a female, as the male is very distinctively marked.

Perhaps someone who knows hermits better can say whether they can look like this.

Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

Re #6 (9312)

I don’t think it is a female Hermit because they do not have the clear discal line or band. I think this is almost 100%. Even more certainly it is not a Southern Hermit.

I also have doubts about Tree Grayling because the irrorations (the little specky marks) are just not right for this species which has a smooth colouring. The shape of the discal line does, however, look right for Tree Grayling, but I am 95% sure it is not this. I don’t think even regional variation would account for this.

The irrorations suggest a Meadow Brown of some description, but the discal line seems to rule out Oriental Meadow Brown (which flies in southern Spain) and Dusky Meadow Brown for much the same reason. Oriental MB has a very differently shaped discal line, which is usually rather faint (there may some debate about this, though). It may be just a Meadow Brown with a slightly unusual discal line. The post-discal band looks right for Meadow Brown.

Nothing seems to fit, but Meadow Brown seems to have the least reasons against.

[Padfield]

I think you're right, Roger - it's a meadow brown. I was only thinking of graylings and that last one puzzled me greatly! But all the puzzling features resolve now, thinking of it as a meadow brown.

Guy

[johnb]

Thanks to Guy and Roger for their help clearing up the ID's.

John