Southern Turkey - Early June

[Reverdin]

Going soon for a short break... anyone with any butterfly experience of Antalya to the Turquoise coast and up to Egirdir near Isparta ? Any indications of places to look would be most welcome, otherwise it will be the St Paul's Way and the Lycian Way and see what turns up. Will add photos in due course, I hope

[Reverdin]

OK... back now... and I have learnt a few things!
Firstly... I should not have expected wall-to-wall sun... but actually that turned out better for photos!
Secondly, one shouldn't expect to see too much!... of a possible 165 species at the two areas visited, at the time visited, I managed a mere 43.
Out of 65 possible species I had never seen, I managed 10
On the other hand... 10

I suspect we were too late for the Spring species, and too early for the Summer ones.... that would be the "June gap" then
Having said that, we did catch a bit at each end, and it was probably the only time I could do that!



Walk 1, Day 1... on the way to Egirdir, at lake Kovada, southern end

Species List... ( first timers for me in bold)

Small White
Large White
Eastern Bath White
Clouded Yellow
Small Copper
Long-tailed Blue
Holly Blue
Brown Argus
Common Blue
Adonis Blue
Painted Lady
Algerian Fritillary ( I think)
Queen of Spain
Meadow Brown
Eastern Meadow Brown (telmessia)
Mallow Skipper
Orbed Red-underwing Skipper
Tessellated Skipper
Small Skipper

**to be continued

[Padfield]

Piccies! Piccies! Please ...

Guy

[Reverdin]

Ok then....
Photo "highlights" of day 1....

agestis

Icarus..... or could it be cornelia

jurtina

male telmessia

lathonia

punica (?)

tessellum ups

and uns

[Reverdin]

Day 2.... Walk up the southern side of the St Paul's Way, from Egirdir.

We walked up-hill to reach uplands, and were later thwarted by a quarry which we couldn't find our way through, and then threatening storm clouds... but in the 2 or 3 hours prior, had a bit of a Blues session.... the following are all pylaon...

The above lady was sitting on what seemed to be the intended larval foodplant, as were most of the zephyrs, most of the time.

I have always wanted to see the semiargus version from the Eastern Med.... and today was the day, a very attractive lady gracing me with her presence.......

Other species seen this day...
Clouded Yellow
Small Copper
Common Blue
Chapman's Blue
Adonis Blue
Glanville Fritillary
Knapweed Fritillary
Small Heath
Small Skipper
Tessellated Skipper

[Padfield]

Great stuff, Paul. It's a really lovely picture of the semiargus and a beautiful series of pylaon. Did you get any uns shots of the punica? I'd probably go for icarus rather than cornelia, on the grounds the white wedge doesn't penetrate very far centrally, but I haven't had time to study any of this in detail.

Looking forward to more.

Guy

[Reverdin]

Yep, tho' I really wanted it to be cornelia I accept the weak white mark is rather a pointer towards icarus.

The ? punica certainly didn't let me near it for an underside, I was going on the convex forewing margin, which is present at different angles on the one or two other rubbish photos I took, and it generally seems to fit the spec otherwise... happy to be persuaded otherwise

There are more to come, but not as many as I hoped originally

[Reverdin]

Day 3.
A ride in the car for a second attempt at the Kekova forest near the Kovada National Park... didn't make it the day before as couldn't find the right road out of a village en route.
This time we made it further - up to the point the road became navigable only by 4x4.... found a gully and it blossomed for me.

The first sightings were of what I believe (hope) to be trivia

The quality of today's photos isn't up to scratch mainly 'cos I had inadvertently switched off the IS and didn't find out until the evening when I discovered lots of bleary images. - lesson learnt... check all the bells and whistles before starting!

Then there were more telmessia and pylaon sephirus...

.... actually, on reflection, I wonder if the "pylaon" is more euripylus, there are a couple of Blue scales in the appropriate spot, and the forewing margin is rather white ( a la Lafranchis ID spec) - please give opinions, if any - here is the upperside...

The star of the show turned up next.... my long hoped for and eagerly anticipated sight of a Blue Argus (anteros), which did not fail me... it was a daisy fresh male...

I found quite some difficulty producing the right shade of blue when developing the RAW file, the above was the best achieved.
Not to be completely outdone for the rest of the day, another large skipper appeared, underside not seen, but I think this is sidae...

and finally, a short walk away, on reaching a meadow... a rather old and washed out cerisy

Day 3 list...
Eastern Festoon
Small White
Large White
Clouded Yellow
Small Copper
Long-tailed Blue
Eastern Baton Blue
Zephyr Blue (or Eastern Brown Argus)
Blue Argus
Mazarine Blue
Chapman's Blue
Southern White Admiral
Painted Lady
Lesser Spotted Fritillary
Queen of Spain Fritillary
Large Wall
Eastern Meadow Brown
Oberthur's Grizzled Skipper
Yellow Banded Skipper
Small Skipper

[Padfield]

I like that very much for euripylus. I wondered too about the female above, because she does have very bright orange lunules, but the ground colour is a less consistent brown and there appear to be no blue scales at all. I'm not sure how diagnostic that is, as I've seen plenty of silver-studs lacking any blue scales too. The only one of the pylaon group I've seen is trappi, and that never shows any blue scales at all - I suspect their presence is more helpful than their absence.

Anteros high on anyone's wish list! Well done!

Guy

[Reverdin]

Thanks Guy, I really appreciate the feedback and I think I'm going to name it as eurypilus!... striking thing was it's size... same as pylaon rather than agestis, and seemingly much nearer in relationship, despite the name.

There followed a couple of rather fruitless days.. the first transferring base, and yielding little roadside joy ,

Day 4
Scarce Swallowtail
Eastern Bath White
Clouded Yellow
Brimstone
Holly Blue
Brown Argus
Common Blue
Painted Lady
Speckled Wood

then the next day a beautiful Lycean Way walk but with scant reward in the brittle heat of the coastal cliffs.

Just a single ? pumilio worthy of showing...

Day 5
Scarce Swallowtail
Small White
Eastern Bath White
Clouded Yellow
Brimstone
Loew's Blue - wait for it!
Common Blue
Wall
Pigmy Skipper
Small Skipper

Then more rewarding final two days. First one starting high in the coastal mountains at Beycik, but an early retreat ensued as storm clouds gathered and dumped heavy rain on us as we sped downhill... despite this, some species were found, and among them rather a lot of ID uncertainty ( please help!) I will give them my best guess ID until corrected ... this was the habitat...

Rather surprisingly, here was the first Grayling of the visit...

not sure between aristaeus, pellucida or mersina but tempted, on what I see to go for the latter. Please give thoughts!

Next one I think is tessellum...

Now another ID issue... I hope this is lavatherae, but I've only this photo and I have never seen one before... (edit)... ah well orientalis it is... - happy with that

The rain produced an interlude, and a change of venue, via "shopping"
But eventually, the second place, further south and rather desolate looking provided a refreshing Lycaenid flurry....
Here are just the few satyrium photos worth posting....

w-album - supposedly thinly distributed and ironically probably the most unusual species I saw from a Local perspective!! - still any photos of this species, even if as worn as this, are to be celebrated. More common, across the white umbellifers were ilicis...

It was only when scrutinizing my day's results late in the evening , did I become aware, some of my camera settings had mysteriously shifted... AGAIN... and evidently the large aperture inadvertently used gave me an astonishingly narrow depth of focus... hence more c$%p photos! Above are all the best of a bad job

Day 6
Scarce Swallowtail
Large White
Eastern Bath White
Brimstone
Ilex Hairstreak
Blue Spot Hairstreak
White-letter Hairstreak
Long-tailed Blue
Eastern Baton Blue
Loew's Blue - still gotta wait for it
Chapman's Blue
Painted Lady
Lesser Spotted Fritillary
Eastern Meadow Brown
Southern/ Samos Grayling
Mallow Skipper
Oriental Marbled Skipper
Tessellated Skipper
Small Skipper

[nik_s]

Great pictures!

Some thoughts on id's:
- The Kretania looks like pylaon/sephirus to me (although I have to admit I've never seen eurypilus live). Regarding systematics, new molecular phylogeny shows that all pylaon-group species belong to the genus Kretania (not Plebejus), so this is now the accepted generic name.
- First skipper definitely G. pumilio
- "lavatherae" is in fact C. orientalis (or maybe flocciferus? I am away from books now, so not sure whether this occurs in the region, but if it does it should be high in the mountains).

And again, great photos!

[Alastair Rae]

Wonderful set of species, well out of my league. But I've been there with the camera settings. I now check all the switches/setting every time I pick up the camera. (Ever since the time I spent several days of a holiday with IS on my long lens turned off.)

[Reverdin]

Thanks Nikolay, I really appreciate the feedback even if it puts euripylus back in doubt - I'm sure you have better experience. ..... and Alistair.... glad I'm not the only one... camera bags are now a menace to me, but really, I should have been less complacent.

Here are the last day's images.... purely loewii...

The iridescence of the male was something wonderful to see, and does not translate well through the photos, it's electric flutterings were captivating, and the males reminded me in habit of those sinapis that flap weakly but incessantly, ? seeking out emergent females - they very rarely stopped at all, and even when they did, it was for seconds only. The spiny Vetch like stuff was evidently the likely foodplant.

A lovely end to a "Curate's Egg" of a holiday.

Final Day's species count
Scarce Swallowtail
Clouded Yellow
Brimstone
Small Copper
Long-tailed Blue
Loew's Blue
Nettle Tree Butterfly
Painted Lady
Wall
Eastern Meadow Brown
Mallow Skipper
Small Skipper

Total Species for Holiday = 43
Species new to me = 10

I will return !!!!