Uppersides of clouded yellows and other autumn romances

[Padfield]

I was lucky enough to watch a pair of clouded yellows flirting today and took a few piccies showing those elusive uppersides. They're not good photos, as I was leaning over an electric fence and it was rather windy, but I thought they might be of interest anyway.






(the happy couple nestling up together)

Also romancing on the wing today were...



... adonis blues (female and male respectively) ...


... wall browns ...



... and Berger's pale clouded yellows (male first, female second picture)

Other things still around included...


... Queens of Spain ...


... common blues ...


... southern small whites...


... and tree graylings.

Red admirals are cruising around all over the place but they hardly ever seem to stop for a photo-shoot.

Guy

Oh - shouldn't forget this lovely, fat, female praying mantis!

[Roger Gibbons]

I was just setting up for what I thought was a shot of a female Bergers clouded yellow underside when I got this lucky snap as it opened its wings and helped me with the ID - a clouded yellow female of the form helice!

[Padfield]

Nice shot!

So I think it is definitely worth showing the uppersides of these insects in the identification section of this site.

G

[Dave Mac]

I would dearly love to get a full frontal of a clouded yellow, brimstone, small heath, greyling etc. but its not easy and you guys have done excellently and I'm very jealous
Dave

[Padfield]

It's all luck, Dave!! I'm frequently in awe of your and others' photos for the skill.

Graylings are like yellows - you have to get them when they're flirting.

I've never managed with the British grayling, semele, but I did this summer with some rock graylings, alcyone. I took this pair from about 20ft, up a hillside, so as so often with these 'lucky' shots they are not actually very good. I have several piccies of roughly similar quality:





Guy

[Pete Eeles]

So I think it is definitely worth showing the uppersides of these insects in the identification section of this site.

Absolutely! I've been a bit slow on updating the ID photos but hope to get to it this week!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Paul]

I'd echo the credits for getting those shots... I'm going for the "lowest quality" prize with this semele on an otherwise fruitless trip to Lulworth this year:-

[Padfield]

That's great, Paul! I think that's quite a rare view.

That's a female - was she wooing a nearby male or was she just flashing her wings? I ask because I have occasionally seen grayling species open their wings briefly when not courting. This is a tree grayling that intermittently flashed them open briefly in sheer joy whilst guzzling this tasty bit of poo. I waited, finger on trigger, and got it. Normally, tree graylings land and close immediately, exactly like graylings.



Guy

[Paul]

She was definitely all alone as far as I could see... I spent 5 mins trying to get a better shot before she scarpered..

I'm impressed by the selection still on the wing where you are by the way

Regards

Paul

[Padfield]

At my altitude (1300m) little is flying. Today it was beautiful and I saw just red admirals and small tortoiseshells. Some friends reported red admirals (they thought...) from 3000m yesterday - this is usually the last butterfly to go up here.

The pictures I posted yesterday were from near Martigny, at about 600m. That corner of the Rhône Valley has a Mediterranean microclimate (hence the mantises, as well as cicadas, cacti, bee-eaters and hoopoes, and the frequent mentions in Tolman!!). I saw wall brown there in December 2006, Queens of Spain were already flying in January 2007 (I saw them on 3rd Feb but some were already tatty) and I've seen clouded yellows there every consecutive month since March 2006 (yes, including December, January and February)!!

Not bad for the Alps, eh!

Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

Here's an upperside of a female tree graying hipparchia statilinus courting.