S. Bulgaria Part 3

[Paul Wetton]

Part 3 in the report from Southern Bulgaria

Please click the link below to view the report.

http://www.ibirdz.co.uk/bulgaria/bulgariapart3.html

Thanks for looking.

[Reverdin]

What a brilliant selection of species and images

[Paul Wetton]

Hi Paul many thanks for having a look.

This was a particularly good section of the holiday, although there were no bad days and we only had a single day without a new species for the holiday out of 22 days.
I must admit I only took a few of these photos. Helen my partner took most of them and did a great job.

I hear you may be off to Bulgaria next year. It's definitely worth a visit with some excellent butterflies.

Thanks again.

[nik_s]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the very interesting report with excellent pictures! The Grass Jewel pictures in particular are fantastic, but the others are also spectacular.

A couple of remarks on id's:

- The Wood White looks more like Leptidea sinapis (or L. juvernica - the species that substitutes L. reali to the East).

- The 'possible' Kolev's Anomalous Blue from near Popovi livadi: when I wrote it "could be" Kolev's, I meant that one cannot rule out Kolev's based on what is seen on the video. As I mentioned in my comments, the details needed for a tentative id are not seen well enough on the video. Since neither Kolev's nor Ripart's Anomalous Blues are known from the region, I don't think it's justified to assume it's one of them. In my opinion, the most probable id is Higgins' Anomalous Blue.

- The Blue next to the Woodland Grayling (July 6th) looks very much like a summer-brood Common Blue (brownish ground colour and reduced blue flush at the base of the hw uns).

I'll have a look at the videos you emailed me as soon as I find some spare time.

Cheers,

Nikolay

[David M]

Beautifully presented (as always), Paul.

Your Grass Jewel and aberrant Balkan Copper are particularly interesting.

[Nick Broomer]

Hi Paul,
a lovely report, and beautiful photography by yourself and Helen.
All the best, Nick.

[Paul Wetton]

Hi Nikolay
Many thanks again for the identification help. I'll amend my final report to include these helpful hints. I look forward to your thoughts on the email I sent over to you and I'm very grateful to you for having a look at the videos.

Hi David and Nick, great to hear you enjoyed the report. I'll be posting the final section later this week.

Thanks to all for taking a peek.

All the best.

[Paul Wetton]

Hi again Nikolay

I just realised I'd actually called the Blue next to the Woodland Grayling Common Blue after your comments on the previous posts. Thanks again for all the information provided.

I totally agree with the comments regarding the Anomalous Blues.

I'm still not convinced with the Wood White. The Wood and Real's Wood Whites (I didn't distinguish between the two) seemed to have more pronounced markings on the underside than this specimen and this one definitely has brown and dark grey on the antennal clubs which I thought was an identification pointer for Eastern Wood White. I wondered if you could let me know why you thought sinapis or juvernica.

[nik_s]

Hi Paul,

Sorry for the delay, I've been extremely busy.

Regarding the Wood White, L. duponcheli has no white on the antennal clubs. Also the shape of the forewing resembles sinapis/juvernica.

Cheers,

Nikolay

[Roger Gibbons]

It is my understanding that only the male sinapis has the white mark on the inside of the antennal club, but the female does not. The female may have a greyish colouring here or be black/brown as 10387 here:
http://www.butterfliesoffrance.com/html ... mes_9May08_

The second brood sinapis in Provence, especially males, have almost no grey scales and many have a distinct yellowish tinge, supposedly an indicator of duponcheli but clearly not a reliable indicator in this part of the world.

I have seen quite a few sinapis that are very heavily dusted with grey scales and these look very much like the classic first brood pattern of duponcheli, but there were reasons why I believe they were not duponcheli. I studied the duponcheli tray at the Natural History Museum and ALL undersides were the classic duponcheli pattern with no variation, so I am led to conclude that anything that looks a “bit like” duponcheli, actually isn’t.

I have searched for duponcheli without success, although I have doubts about some of the sinapis. I continue to search for first brood duponcheli because I think that will be clear, whereas it may never be possibly to confidently ID a second brood.

Whether, yours is a female, Paul, is difficult to say. There is rarely enough of the body visible to judge (it suggests female here?) and wing shape (females are usually more rounded?) is not totally reliable.

[Paul Wetton]

Hi Nikolay and Roger.

Many thanks for your comments. It's good to get some feedback from folks who have much more experience of the species in question.

After looking at your photos Roger, the white or grey on the antennal clubs of our photo seems to indicate that it's not Eastern Wood White as Nikolay stated.

Thanks to both for taking the time to help with the ID's.

[Paul Wetton]

I've taken another look through the photos taken in the Arda Valley and come up with this one.

Could this be an Eastern Wood White. There appears to be no white on the antennal clubs only brown and black.

Thanks.

[Mikhail]

Looks good to me. The Eastern Wood White is a denizen of warm, even hot, dry habitats, quite unlike the other Wood Whites. I have often seen it in company with Chapman's Blue and I suspect it is using Sainfoin as a larval foodplant. Paul, I haven't commented earlier on your record of the Balkan Clouded Yellow from Belasitsa because I was expecting a reaction from Nikolay. To be frank, I would be very surprised indeed if this species was present on that mountain. You seem to be relying primarily on the presence or absence of yellow veins through the black borders. I do wonder how reliable this character is. Certainly females often (usually?) lack the veins. To be honest, I have never knowingly seen this species in spite of many visits to the Rila mts. It seems to be exceedingly local and is known to have disappeared from Mt. Vitosha. This year, Nick Greatorex-Davies and his group found it on Mt. Osogovo (Osogovska planina) on the border with FYRoM. Of course we must always be prepared for surprise discoveries. This year has seen the first ever record of the Violet Copper for Bulgaria and, of course, your excellent find of the Grass Jewel.

M.

[Paul Wetton]

Hi Mikhail

You are most probably correct with regard to the Clouded Yellows. My problem was lack of knowledge of what could be found where in Bulgaria. I therefore, went purely on the field characteristics given in the various ID Guides mainly using Lafranchis. The only way I could attempt to ID these Clouded Yellows was to freeze the frames from the video footage and use the guide books. These particular Clouded Yellows appeared darker than most showing an orange / yellow upper wing and there were no veins across the black borders which according to Lafranchis is indicative of Balkan Clouded Yellow. Of course I am always happy to be corrected by persons with greater knowledge of the area and I thank you for the comments.
I saw one Clouded Yellow near Studen Kladenets that was an orange / brown colour on the upperside but this specimen eluded the cameras.

[nik_s]

From my (fairly recent - this summer) experience with C. caucasica from Rila:

1. Colour varies and id in flight is often impossible, particularly from a distance.
2. Id is easy if you manage a good photo of the upperside (fw for males, hw for females); the ups can be examined also if you catch the butterfly.
3. Male C. caucasica have no yellow veins in the black marginal band; the entire band has a yellowish dusting; the fw is pointed.
4. Female C. caucasica have a complete row of light marginal spots on hw ups, reaching the anal angle. In C. croceus there are only 3-4 spots near the costa (see image below).

Colias caucasica and C. croceus female id

Paul: the video you sent me does raise questions but is not enough for answers. Without clear photos, we can only speculate - if you have any, I hope the above helps you come up with a definite id. I believe that this butterfly can be easily overlooked, particularly given that it flies with croceus and is usually much less common, and the difference in colour isn't as obvious as people usually think (at least not in all specimens).

As for the possibility to have C. caucasica on Belasitsa, I think it is theoretically possible - at least the foodplant (Chamaecytisus absinthioides) occurs there. Mikhail, are your doubts based on personal experience? I've only been there once (at the Belasitsa Hut), so my impressions from that mountain are rather limited. As for Studen Kladenets, I seriously doubt it - I don't think there are suitable habitats not only for C. caucasica, but for C. myrmidone as well.

This year has seen the first ever record of the Violet Copper for Bulgaria

Mikhail: this is very exciting, could you give some more details? I've been looking for it after it was discovered in Serbia, but had no luck this year.

Cheers,
Nikolay

[Paul Wetton]

Hi Nikolay

I've taken another look at the video checking frame by frame and the male definitely appears to have no yellow veins across the black border of the wings and it is a very fresh specimen. The female is more difficult and I can't tell if she has yellow spots down to the anal angle of the upper hindwing. If I saw both separately I'd plump for C. croceus for the female and C. caucasica for the male which doesn't help me at all. Thanks for posting your excellent photos which are extremely helpful.
Looks like I'll need to pay another visit to Bulgaria with all this information.

I'll try getting a better freeze frame using some other software because my camera films at 50 fps whereas most of the software only uses 25 fps, thus always merging two frames together making it difficult to look at still frames. If I get a decent still I'll post it to let you have a look.

Thanks again.

[Mikhail]

Nikolay.

The discovery of Lycaena helle was made by a group of Dutch naturalists, who were unaware of the earlier find in Serbia, and who were not specifically looking for butterflies at the time. The place of discovery is very close to the Serbian border. See: http://forum.waarneming.nl/smf/index.php?topic=188735.0. (Blauwe vuurvlinder Bulgarije) Follow the link to Observado for pictures.

M.

[nik_s]

Thanks Mikhail, this is fantastic news!

[Ian Pratt]

Great report and photos. Thanks so much for posting it.
Ian

[Paul Wetton]

Hi Ian

Thanks, pleased you enjoyed it.

All the best.