Central France into North-East Spain.

[LancsRover]

Tuesday 10th Sept. 2013.
Souillac,Dordogne.
Butterflies seen on scrub land next to car park close to the river.
After cloudy and cool morning, the sun came out whilst we had our lunch break(30-40
mins) and the butterflies were all over this little piece of scrub land, on a few wild flowers,
Long-Tailed Blue,Clouded Yellow,Adonis Blue, Common Blue,Small Heath,Large White & Small, and a couple I think I need a hand with on ID please, the one I thought was a Brimstone(but was orange when in flight) is may be a Cleopatra? see pic. and the other I think is some kind of Speckled Wood? see pic. and any help would be appreciated.

Russ

[David M]

Yes, you've been lucky enough to see Cleopatra (a favourite of mine). Clouded Yellow and Long-Tailed Blue is also nice.

Your Speckled Wood is the French version tircis which is distinctly different to our own aegeria.

[essexbuzzard]

Yes,as David says,you have a gorgeous Cleopatra! They can be hard to photograph,so we done.

Great Long-tailed Blue,too. I have never seen one,but i'm hoping that will change at the end of this month( though not if this cold wet weather keeps up! ).

[Roger Gibbons]

This form is actually the nominate form aegeria, the UK version being tircis.

[David M]

This form is actually the nominate form aegeria, the UK version being tircis.

My apologies. The French name for Speckled Wood is 'Le Tircis', so it's easy to get confused!

[LancsRover]

Thanks David and Roger for info. on Speckled Wood, I was confused because I'd seen a "orange" S/W in Spain and it didn't look anything like this French one.

Cheers Essex, I hope you get your L/T Blue in Kent soon.

Russ

Ps Further up date on trip tomorrow.

[LancsRover]

Thursday 12th Sept. 2013
Rocamadour, Central France.

We thought we would go and see the famous ROCAMADOUR, the weather was very dull, with total cloud cover, 16c temp.
but we thought we would have a look around the edge of the big car park at the top of the village anyway.
As we walked in the scrub area, up came a rather large Fritillary and landed a few feet away on the ground, I managed to get a couple of pics., it is a little frayed at the edges but it looks fine to me being a new b/f.
A few minutes after the frit. vanished another b/f appeared, largish brown, and landed on a buddleia bush, I only got one shot before it also disappeared.
I didn't get a photo of the under side of the frit. and the brown b/f is slightly out of focus but I would appreciate anybody to having a go at an ID, with my limited knowledge I think the frit. could possibly be a Queen of Spain? and the brown a Tree Grayling?
What do you think?

These two were the only b/f's we saw all day.

[Paul Wetton]

I'm not 100% certain and others will probably give a better ID but the Brown looks like a Dryad and the Frit looks like a worn female Silver-Washed but without seeing an underside I could confuse it with a Cardinal. If someone knows an easy way to separate these two on upperside please let us know as I'm sure there will be an easy way.

[Padfield]

I think that is a tree grayling - a female. Here is a very similar individual from Switzerland for comparison:



The fritillary is indeed a female silver-washed. The hindwing of a female cardinal is entirely suffused with a reflective olive green and in general the spots are smaller and some of them more linear, giving a less crowded appearance:



Males are less subjective from the upperside, as the cardinal has just two androconial stripes (as opposed to three in silver-washed).

Guy

[LancsRover]

Many thanks to both Paul and Guy for ID info, I don't think I have seen a female S/W Frit. before, only males which look quite different with their sex-brands. I should have studied JeremyThomas's excellent book more closely, I'm still learning.

Friday 13th Sept.2013
Lacomte Campsite, Lot, France.
This is a 32 acre camp site, with woodland, fields with a whole variety of wild flowers(like England in the 1950's) and rough scrub area's also.All the following butterflies were found on the site;
Large Skipper, Silver Spotted Skipper, Grizzled Skipper(or Southern G/S or Oberthur's G/S, see photo below), Small White, Large White, Silver washed Frit.(male), Clouded Yellow, tens of Blues( mainly Common),Great Banded Grayling(beautiful b/f in flight), Small Copper and yet again another new FRITILLARY(see photo below) I'm not going to say anything this time after the Queen of Spain that wasn't, ha! ha! I'll leave it to my learned friends.

[Padfield]

Hi LancsRover. Your fritillary this time is a male spotted frtillary, Melitaea didyma. The grizzled skipper is Oberthür's, Pyrgus armoricanus, and the blues are chalkhills.

It's all making me pine for the butterflies again! The mountains here were white with fresh snow this morning and it was really quite cold. It seems like ages ...

Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

Your white may well be Southern Small White (Pieris mannii). The shot is not very clear but the dusting of grey scales is across the entire hindwing which strongly suggetss mannii (in Small White P. rapae they are mostly confined to the lower half). It looks rather yelow, which suggets rapae rather than mannii, but sometimes the camera angle etc can be be slightly deceptive. There are other clues but they are not really clear from this shot. If you have a close up of the underside forewing tip (or if you see another), that would be definitive, as vein 7 will be forked at the end or not. Mannii does occur in Lot.

In France, a cabbage white may not be just a cabbage white. It's worth taking shots of any "Small White" you see.

[LancsRover]

Hi Guy
Thanks for your help with the ID's, I thought the fritillary was a Spotted(or Lesser Spotted) but wasn't 100%, those Grizzled Skippers look so alike, and the Chalk-hill Blue did look very pale blue in flight but I didn't know the terrain. Anyway, thanks for the help, I might need it again now I'm in that Spain.
You're right, it is going to be a long winter without our little friends but you have those beautiful mountains to look at and maybe ski down?

Russ

[LancsRover]

Hi Roger,
Thanks for the info. on Whites, unfortunately I didn't get any more photo's of them. I'm now in Spain but I will be taking more notice of all the Whites and if I get any decent shots, I will post them on the site.

Russ

[LancsRover]

Thursday 19th sept. 2013
Coast,Sant Pere Pescador, North East Spain.

Ride out to river estuary, 2 km north of camp site, small nature reserve, very windy day(pm) but clear sky, 23c.

Butterflies seen; Whites, Two-tailed Pasha,Swallowtail,Clouded Yellow, Common Blue, numerous Dragonflies but the only b/f. I managed to snap was a Wall, everything else went past at a rate of knots, but at least I know that these b/f's are around.

Russ

[LancsRover]

20th September 2013.
Roses,Catalunya,NE Spain.

On a walk organised by the camp site, up in the hills behind the town of ROSES. We went up to just over 1,000 feet(350m), the pace was fast and continuous(set by a very fit 25 year old Czech girl) not leaving much time to take photo's but I did manage to get a couple of snaps of what I think is a Striped Grayling(?) flying at 900ft. It did the usual Grayling trick of tilting it's body towards the sun but did keep still on the grey rock allowing a couple of quick shots.
I did see a quick fly bye of what looked like a Swallowtail but again no pic.
Plenty of Wall's on the dusty paths and tracks, but not much else.

Russ

[LancsRover]

I had a reply from cjackson on my Striped Grayling but it now seems to have disappeared?

Report contd;
Saturday 21st Sept. 2013
Campsite and N/R South of River El Fluvia.
Two-Tailed Pasha seen again this morning, this time on our actual campsite in 2 different spots, but it was 20-30ft high, bombing around the tops of trees, no pics.

In the afternoon,I went for a short trip down to the small N/R south of the river, where Speckled Wood, Large Skipper and a Painted Lady were flying

Russ

[LancsRover]

Sunday Afternoon, 22nd Sept. 2013
Aquarius Camp site, Sunny,Very Warm 26c.

At the side of our camp site there are a few rough meadows, with tall wild flowers and grasses, which are now past their best but are still attracting quite a few butterflies. I was walking through these meadows this afternoon in the baking heat, when I spotted an unusual white & black butterfly floating over the tops of the flowers and grasses, weaving in and out of them. I followed it for a few metres and when it landed I noticed that it was a type of Clouded Yellow but when it took off again it was white & black instead of the usual orange/yellow and black. I managed to take a few snaps when it did land again(see below) and I have checked my book and I think it is a BERGER'S CLOUDED YELLOW?(I'm open to suggestions)

Also flying in the meadows were lots of Blues(female browns) of various sizes, mostly Commons (I think), it was difficult to get any good shots, they mainly had their wings open when still. I have attached a poor photo of one if anybody can make out what it is? Plenty of Whites, Large Skippers,Clouded Yellows and a Latticed Heath(female) moth.

Just as I was packing up and having a drink of VIMTO, I Swallowtail came into vision and landed some 15 metres away from where I was standing, I crept over to it and got one shot before it took off out of sight forever.

Another brilliant day in Spain!

Russ

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Russ,
Looks like there was plenty on the wing then, and that Swallowtail must have been the icing on the cake.
Keep an open mind, your Clouded Yellow may be crocea f. helice, but lets hope you get an expert opinion.
Just confirming that your Striped Graying higher up is indeed one (they are quite common here in the South of France). To me your's has the colours of an older individual, later on in the season - don't be surprised if you see one another year, earlier, with more startling contrast. Here below is a fresh male from earlier in the season, and an older individual later in the season, for comparison.
Cheers, Chris.

fidia, male, June 24

fidia Sept 8

[LancsRover]

Thanks Chris for your comments, I'm not sure myself about the Clouded Yellow, may be somebody with greater knowledge will advise? thanks also for your great pics of Striped Grayling(see another pic further down)

Friday 27th Sept. 2013 Sunny, very hot (28c)
Sant Pere DE Rodes, Spain

Another fast walk lead by my lovely Czech friend Katrina, this time up to 1650 feet, not much time to take many photo's but very enjoyable anyway, butterflies seen, Great Banded Grayling, another Striped Grayling(see pic), small copper,large white, red admiral, wall, and 3/4 Swallowtails fighting right at the top of the mountain.

Russ