Chalkhill Blue??

[Bill S]

Hi all

As always, any help with this would be most appreciated. This was taken a week ago in the Lot region of France. I think I've been fooled before by the tendency of Chalkhill Blue to have some tiny patches of blue scales in the centre of the dark dots close to the uhw edge, but I'd be grateful of any confirmation of what species this is please?

Many thanks in advance

Regards

Bill

[Padfield]

Hi Bill. Sorry - I didn't notice this post earlier when I was on holiday.

The butterfly is certainly Lysandra - that is, chalkhill blue, Provence chalkhill blue or Adonis blue. I think it is also a female. My feeling (now it's down to feeling, not science) is that it's chalkhill or Provence chalkhill but my experience of the latter is too limited to decide between this pair. If pushed, I'd probably go for chalkhill because the ground colour is lighter than that in the only certain colonies of Provence chalkhill blue I've visited (all in France, near Lyon).

The presence of blue in the spots is interesting. We've established before that it can occur in many different species of blue, not just the Plebejus group, but it is always anomalous outside this group. I'd be interested in the opinion of those who regularly visit this part of France and know the species there better than I do. I don't think I've ever seen this in chalkhill blues in Switzerland or Spain.

I hope if this isn't as helpful as it could be it stimulates someone else to add to or contradict my comments...

Guy

[Bill S]

Hi Bill. Sorry - I didn't notice this post earlier when I was on holiday.

The butterfly is certainly Lysandra - that is, chalkhill blue, Provence chalkhill blue or Adonis blue. I think it is also a female. My feeling (now it's down to feeling, not science) is that it's chalkhill or Provence chalkhill but my experience of the latter is too limited to decide between this pair. If pushed, I'd probably go for chalkhill because the ground colour is lighter than that in the only certain colonies of Provence chalkhill blue I've visited (all in France, near Lyon).

The presence of blue in the spots is interesting. We've established before that it can occur in many different species of blue, not just the Plebejus group, but it is always anomalous outside this group. I'd be interested in the opinion of those who regularly visit this part of France and know the species there better than I do. I don't think I've ever seen this in chalkhill blues in Switzerland or Spain.

I hope if this isn't as helpful as it could be it stimulates someone else to add to or contradict my comments...

Guy

Thanks very much Guy, I do have some other views in which the unf might be more visible, would that help at all? There were lots of both Adonis and Chalkhill around the day I photographed this one.

Bill