Notable Blues
Quite a few in this sequence, so bear with me....
I think we caught the early emergence of
Meleager's Blue, as all the individuals seen were relatively unblemished. Normally, the females are very 'blue', but here in the French Alps they are mainly brown. However, that distinctive scalloped look is still a defining characteristic:
A few males were seen too:
A handful of rather faded
Baton Blues were seen:
Two of the best sightings of the week were made within minutes of one another. First up was this female
Long Tailed Blue:
Within a very short space of time, a sharp-eyed member of the group spotted the only
Lang's Short Tailed Blue of the week:
With so much Lycaenid activity going on around the many 'puddling' spots we visited, it was incumbent on Roger to point out anything unusual. It was he who directed us to
Idas Blue:
Here's a male upperside:
Whilst we were 1900m up one of the mountains, Roger noticed that there was a Blue which was worthy of further attention. Ostensibly, it looked like a Common Blue, but further scrutiny showed it to be devoid of the cell spot that
icarus possesses, so down on my knees I went to take several images of
Chapman's Blue:
Roger also pointed out a handful of
Eros Blues at one of the puddling sites:
I made a bit of a 'bore' of myself during the trip. I simply couldn't wait to get out whilst others were still enjoying their morning coffee. On the third morning though this paid dividends, as a routine examination of the village in which we were staying brought about the only sighting of the week of
Geranium Bronze. Me and the bird enthusiast spotted this insect fluttering about the local allotments at about 8.20am. Neither of us could get near to it as it was behind the perimeter fence, but it is undoubtedly a South African colonist:
