Butterflies of Var, Southern France

[Matsukaze]

Lysandra - I struggle with coridon and hispana. At altitude there were fairly worn coridon on the wing. These two were lower down and much fresher, which makes me wonder if they are second brood hispana. The first brood occurs in the area where I found these.

I have lost count of the number of butterflies that have disappeared from the frame just as I take the photo, so it is nice to get an extra butterfly appearing...

This lovely female Adonis aberration was a very nice find.

This one was on the road up from Grenoble over the Col de la Croix Haute into Provence. I saw the silver studs on this one but could not get a shot of the underside. Can it be identified? (I suspect the answer is 'no').

[Matsukaze]

Browns - the Meadow Browns were interesting. There were plenty on the wing in good condition still. The majority resembled the form hispulla illustrated in Tolman & Lewington, with a handful of more 'typical' looking specimens. Yet on the same sites in June the majority looked 'typical' and I do not remember seeing this bright form here before. Is the appearance of the form determined by temperature, or emergence time, or some other factor?

There were plenty of graylings about - tree, great banded, woodland, and striped were all common. This one I think is semele, whose distinguishing features I have never really needed to note before...

I am pretty sure this is a Small Heath, but it was the largest and brightest specimen I have come across - on the wing it appeared orange rather than the usual tan, more like a Gatekeeper.

[Roger Gibbons]

I have also not seen any Long-tailed Blues (Lampides boeticus) this year, and relatively few Lang’s Short-tailed Blues (Leptotes pirithous). It seems to be a bad year for these later migrants.

Your Pyrgus:
1 probably Rosy (onopordi), only other option Oberthur’s (armoricanus)
2 Cinquefoil (cirsii)
3 onopordi
4 cirsii, only other option onopordi
5 onopordi

The female blues are all Common (Polyommatus icarus), I think. They can be very small at this time of year.

The female Adonis (Lysandra bellargus) is semi-ceronus, the partially blue form.

Regarding the Plebejus species, it looks like Reverdin’s (argyrognomon) but the slight chequering of the hindwing fringe doesn’t look right for this species. The other option would be Idas (idas) of the form calliopsis. If it was at altitude, it is more likely to be idas.

The Small Heaths (Coenonympha pamphilus) are often very bright and sometimes rather large, often with marked ocelli, in this part of the world.

The grayling is Striped (Hipparchia fidia).

[Matsukaze]

Thanks Roger - cirsii is new to me and onopordi I have only seen once before, in Morocco. Is it known how the various Pyrgus are ecologically separated? From the guides it appears they occur in the same places and pretty much eat the same things...

I have my species count for the commune at 61, which is not bad considering I have never visited between mid-June and early September.

The Plebejus was at around 850-900 m - does this enable a firm ID? There was no shortage of Coronilla varia in flower at the site where the photo was taken. Not sure what other potential foodplant was about (Fabaceae in southern France are completely beyond me), but there were plenty of Common and Adonis Blues present as well.

[Roger Gibbons]

Cirsii is a late summer species. The distribution of Pyrgus species in Haut-Var is given in the PACA Atlas but is very unclear. Species most likely to be encountered in this region are onopordi, armoricanus, malvoides and at altitudes around 800m+ and late summer cirsii. I think your clear uppersides are cirsii and onopordi as I have previously mentioned, but the others are unclear and are my best guesses from what I can see, although there are slight clues. If Guy agrees, you can be confident.

I suspect your Chalk-hill Blues are Provence (Lysandra hispana) as the blue colour appears rather dull and the marginal markings are suggestive of hispana. It also helps that hispana is double-brooded and that coridon occurs in between although there is a slight overlap of flight periods. It makes it certain that if one is seen in May it is bound to be hispana. In late September it is also much more likely to be hispana, as here, but less certain.

I think your Plebejus is more likely to be idas calliopsis. The borders are quite thin for nominate idas, but narrower in calliopsis, so I think this is within range. The slight chequering of the hindwing fringe swings it in favour of idas for me, as I don’t think argyrognomon shows this. I had always thought of idas as higher altitude species, but in fact it can occur at lower levels. Argyrognomon has a normal maximum altitude of around 1000m.

[Roger Gibbons]

Some friends of ours who live in Callas in Var have been filming the lifecycles of local species in the wild for the past couple of years and their films make fascinating viewing. Here are a few that I think UKBers would find interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aahkLWYnXp0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm4bbW-kjXc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62mGXCiQNfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJs9sb4C6TI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOp6Ea2kcDU
There are about 40 short films in total, including quite a few on parasitoids, many of which were previously unknown. They are working on a web site which will go live in the near future.

I’m currently working on the update to my web site with the 2013 photos and observations, about half completed, and hope to complete the remaining species over the next couple of weeks.

[Pete Eeles]

Wow - thanks for posting the links Roger! I'll have a better look later but was blown away with the Camberwell Beauty footage in the last video!

Look forward to seeing your website updates!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Vince Massimo]

Absolutly fantastic films! Thanks for flagging them up Roger
My favourite sequence is the little Iolas Blue caterpillar feeding inside the seed pod of the host plant (third video), but seeing Camberwell beauty eggs being laid was also a highlight. Great to see such a selection of species and sequences.

Vince

[David M]

I've watched the Swallowtail one and I'm hooked already!

I shall do the rest justice tomorrow!

[Julian]

Stunning video footage Roger and beautifully rendered sound tracks. I watched and loved every minute of them.
Regards
Julian
http://www.greenwings.co

[Chris Jackson]

Some friends of ours who live in Callas in Var

Thanks for the links Roger. Very interesting viewing with a clear ecological message. The skill and patience necessary in the filming is praise-worthy.
Chris.

[David M]

Some friends of ours who live in Callas in Var have been filming the lifecycles of local species in the wild for the past couple of years and their films make fascinating viewing. Here are a few that I think UKBers would find interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aahkLWYnXp0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm4bbW-kjXc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62mGXCiQNfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJs9sb4C6TI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOp6Ea2kcDU
There are about 40 short films in total, including quite a few on parasitoids, many of which were previously unknown. They are working on a web site which will go live in the near future.

I’m currently working on the update to my web site with the 2013 photos and observations, about half completed, and hope to complete the remaining species over the next couple of weeks.

Well, I've watched them all now and I can only say they were absolutely superb. Had they been common species they'd have been interesting enough, but to record the lifecycles of such rarities as these in such intimate detail is truly cutting edge stuff.

I'd be most interested in the website once it is up and running, as I'm sure many others would be.

[Matsukaze]

Yes, these are excellent films. Many thanks for posting these - I have enjoyed them greatly.

[Roger Gibbons]

The web site is now live here: http://www.filming-varwild.com

Roger

[David M]

Thanks for that, Roger.

There's a lovely Large Tortoiseshell sequence that wasn't among the original offering.

Fascinating viewing.

[Roger Gibbons]

A while ago, I put up a comparison of French blues undersides in grid form to help with the identification of related species, which seems to have been well received.

I have just put up a similar grid for fritillaries here: http://www.butterfliesoffrance.com/fritillariesID.htm

I'm missing a few, some of which I have never seen, but mostly because I see them belting around in the heat of the day and rarely with wings closed. I've continued with the original taxonomy regarding Mellicta and Melitaea for the moment (but noted in the Species List). I'm slightly puzzled that the underside of False Heath Fritillary (Melitaea diamina) is so much like the "Mellicta" species, and unlike the other Melitaea species.

[David M]

That's an extremely useful link, Roger.

Many thanks for providing it.

[JKT]

I'm missing a few, some of which I have never seen, but mostly because I see them belting around in the heat of the day and rarely with wings closed.

Those are so useful that feel free to borrow any of my pictures for the purpose. B. aquilonaris comes to mind from this batch ... and E. maturna in a few days.

It would help even more if there were definite ways to tell them ALL apart.

[Roger Gibbons]

Hi Juha,

Yes, aquilonaris and maturna would be good. I have seen maturna a few times but never an underside view. I have got wet feet many times looking for aquilonaris but have not been lucky as yet.

I see you have a nice aquilonaris underside, so please let me know when you have maturna and I will put them up copyright Juha Tyllinen and link to your site (as I have done with Jude Lock's A. pyrenaicus on the blues ID page).

Regards

Roger

[Roger Gibbons]

I have just come back from a month in Var (11 April – 11 May) and it has certainly been an early season so far. My year ticks were 67 when I left and all but two of these were in my favourite patch near Draguignan.

I have also seen Provence Orange Tip (Anthocharis euphenoides) and Spanish Festoon (Zerynthia rumina) in my locality near St Aygulf for the first time this year, bringing the total of species seen within 1km of my residence to 74, in an area which I generally consider to be butterfly-poor. I do a transect-type walk there every week and it just illustrates how under-recorded many regions of southern France are.

Spanish Festoons seem to have increased greatly in numbers over the past few years and they could be counted in tens this year. Their larval hostplant, Aristolochia pistolochia, also seems to be spreading rapidly so this is probably the reason. Southern Festoon (Z. polyxena) emerges a couple of weeks earlier than rumina and uses A. rotunda as hostplant; their flight season was well under way when I arrived on 11 April.

If you never get the opportunity to see these two magnificent Festoons, this may compensate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4ePAaOiAAk

Here are a few images of the year in Var so far.

Marsh Fritillaries (Euphydryas aurinia) are abundant at the moment and can be counted in hundreds at some locations. Here is a female in typical moth-like pose in overcast conditions.

Osiris Blue (Cupido osiris) is considered to be highly localised and rather iconic, but I find it regularly and this year in good numbers. It is closely related to the Small (or Little) Blue (C. minimus) except that the male osiris is actually blue. Here is a male upperside, and I think the underside is also male.

This is a male Provence Orange Tip, the female being white but with some orange at the wing tips (as Chris has shown). It is quiet difficult to photograph as it flies almost non-stop and when it does stop to nectar, usually on Biscutella laevigata, it hangs downwards and photos are usually of moving subjects.

This is a Provence Chalk-hill Blue (Lysandra hispana), common in Provence in spring and autumn. It has a rather duller blue colour than its Chalk-hill Blue cousin (L. coridon) as can be seen here.

There are common species in Var, and Common Blues (Polyommatus icarus) are common here too. Here’s a male.

And, finally, a Spanish Festoon.

Roger