Visit to the Brenne.

[P.J.Underwood]

Whilst this country was troubled with rain,three of us from Clacton County High School zoology group of 56 yrs ago,made a trip to the Brenne(about 40 mins East of Poitier) for a week from 28th June.The weather was nearly perfect-sun for most of the time.We saw 47 species and some of the interesting ones plus one fly are shown below.We only missed out on the Alcon Blue.
P.J.U.
More in the next post.

[P.J.Underwood]

Part 2.
We stayed at Le Blanc,ideally situated for the sites and had help from Tony Williams at the "Maison du Nature"at the Cherine reserve.
P.J.U.

[David M]

Excellent photos. Hard to believe that a few hundred miles can make such a profound difference regarding butterfly numbers/range of species.

Incidentally, is your Purple Emperor underside not Lesser Purple Emperor?

[P.J.Underwood]

I see what you mean with the paler discal band,but it was a rather large butterfly.I will check the other photo's.Here is an underside view of the Lesser purple emperor.Thanks for pointing it out.
P.J.U.

[David M]

iris usually has a much more visible level of dark/light contrast on the underside than ilia. I always hesitate to make pronouncements when the likes of Guy/Roger, etc are far better placed to comment, however I feel that this butterfly is ilia.

[P.J.Underwood]

Here is a shot of iris from Botany Bay last year.This illustrates the difference exactly.I will have to check our other photo's for a P.E.
P.J.U.

[Padfield]

This brought back schoolboy memories - I spent a week in the Brenne in July of 1980, I think.

As David says, and you now see, that is definitely a lesser purple emperor. But there are purple emperors in the Brenne - or there were in July 1980...

Guy

[P.J.Underwood]

Thanks Guy.There are still Purple Emperors there,more than can be said for the Chiddingfold wood at the moment.Can they survive drowning?
Philip