Matsukaze

[Matsukaze]

Blue Spot has to be my favourite French Hairstreak and you've captured it extremely well there, Matsukaze,

They are indeed lovely creatures. I was fortunate to catch them at the beginning of their flight period. Later in the year, they will often have lost their blue spots due to bird attack - which I suppose is what it is there for, but it does make identifying them that little bit more complicated.

[David M]

Blue Spot has to be my favourite French Hairstreak and you've captured it extremely well there, Matsukaze,

They are indeed lovely creatures. I was fortunate to catch them at the beginning of their flight period. Later in the year, they will often have lost their blue spots due to bird attack - which I suppose is what it is there for, but it does make identifying them that little bit more complicated.

I don't think it's just birds that attack that area, Matsukaze. I reckon spiders & lizards inflict damage too. Like you say, it's amazing just how many lose their blue spots but at least it shows that this type of defence mechanism works!

[Matsukaze]

Provence butterflies, June 2018.

Niobe Fritillary

Spotted Fritillary

Lulworth Skipper

Black-veined White: "don't try this at home"

[Wurzel]

Cracking species and shots Matsukaze - I've missed out on Niobes twice now and have never been on the continent at the right time for Black-veined Whites I did try and turn one of my High Browns into a Niobe but it just didn't work

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Matsukaze]

I did try and turn one of my High Browns into a Niobe but it just didn't work

This time I had the opposite problem.

[David M]

Very nice, Matsukaze.

Roll on next summer!

[Matsukaze]

The first moth of the year - Pale Brindled Beauty, fluttering at a lit window this evening.

[Wurzel]

That's one subtle beauty there Matsukaze - love the 'mossy green' look it's modelling

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

The first moth of the year - Pale Brindled Beauty, fluttering at a lit window this evening.

Very nice, Matsukaze....and extremely welcome following on from that awful cold snap.

Here's hoping the milder weather will see a few more take to the wing.

[Matsukaze]

This morning...

[David M]

Always gives you a lift does the first bumblebee of the year. Usually, if I spot one I'm normally confident that butterflies will be around too (so long as the sun is shining).

[Matsukaze]

Provence, late June 2019

Considering how hot it was later to get, it is surprising to remember that when we got on the ferry at Portsmouth it was grey and drizzly. We had already discovered that the car's air-conditioning was not working, but did not realise how much trouble this was going to give us...

Leaving Portsmouth harbour, you get treated to a range of flagships of all ages:

HMS Victory

HMS Warrior

HMS Queen Elizabeth

The sun had come out by the time we reached Le Havre, which has some cliffs that look good for exploration one day.

We had a four hour journey south to Orléans, where we stopped overnight on the drive south. Us British lepidopterists tend to celebrate France for its expanses of butterfly habitat and the many species which live there, which is true, but there are equally large areas of agrochemical wasteland, where it is impossible to imagine any insect life existing (it must do, as stonechats perch alongside the roads in these wastes, and they must find something to feed on). The first day and a good part of the second were spent crossing these areas, and it wasn't until we stopped for lunch on the second day that we came across butterflies.

This one flew up from the ground as it approached - whether it is a White Admiral or Southern White Admiral I am not sure - I tried to get it to move by throwing sticks into the canopy around it, which only succeeded in getting it to fly higher and out of view. Can it be identified from the photo?

A second stop was by the Pont du Gabarit in the Massif Central.

Here there was a slope with patches of thyme and bird's foot trefoil, and two butterflies, a Glanville Fritillary and a Chapman's/icarinus Blue (can this be identified from the photo?). In Provence we were in between broods of the Glanville Fritillary, and I think this was the only one I saw in all the two weeks. I didn't knowingly see Chapman's again, either.

[Padfield]

Hi Matsukaze. I incline to female icarinus for that last blue, because the black submarginal spots on the hindwing are mostly confluent with the orange inside. In Chapman's, these spots are mostly discrete. This is female Chapman's, to show what I mean:



Guy

EDIT - actually, I think that's a male - the blue of the ups is showing through the hindwing fringe. Here's a female with a male:

[David M]

..Us British lepidopterists tend to celebrate France for its expanses of butterfly habitat and the many species which live there, which is true, but there are equally large areas of agrochemical wasteland, where it is impossible to imagine any insect life existing (it must do, as stonechats perch alongside the roads in these wastes, and they must find something to feed on).

That probably explains why butterfly disappearances in France are far more west-centric than they are east-centric.

Like in the UK, swathes of low lying fertile land in this part of France are routinely given over to agriculture.

[Matsukaze]

Thanks folks - yes, what I have seen of western France does not impress, which makes me wonder why I have agreed to go there on holiday this September...

Interrupting the Provence holiday narrative with this picture of a Large Blue. Collard Hill, 9 June 2019.

[David M]

Thanks folks - yes, what I have seen of western France does not impress, which makes me wonder why I have agreed to go there on holiday this September...

It's still a big improvement on the UK, Matzukaze, in spite of its limitations in comparison to the eastern side of France.

[Matsukaze]

Outdoor swimming is to my wife what watching butterflies is to me, and a break from driving at the Lac de Salagou in Hérault gave her some welcome relaxation - it was also handily timed so we avoided trying to navigate Montpellier at rush hour. Whilst she swam, I searched for butterflies on the shore, which proved to be one of the most barren locations I have ever come across in Europe, with patches of desiccated grass scattered amongst hard red rocks.

I got a very brief view of this skipper - either Carcharodus or Sage Skipper - which was distracted by the Marbled White, and lost to sight. The Marbled White was making occasional use of the handful of scattered scabious plants, but was rarely stopping and then only briefly, which seems to be the way of this genus when it is hot. Tolman has this area as the border zone between galathea and lachesis - is it possible to determine which of the two it is?

The fringes of the lake, with grassy areas and scattered trees, proved good habitat for Great Banded Grayling, a huge butterfly full of character, which flies with slow wing-beats like a big Morpho from a tropical house - except when they are chasing each other. Although the larvae are grass-feeders, they appear to need to roost on trees, and so seem to require a largely grassy landscape with a scattering of trees.

It was still another four hours from here to our destination, another lake - the Lac de Sainte Croix in Var - with just about enough time to enjoy wine on the terrace and then to sleep.

[Wurzel]

A cracking and typical shot of the Great Banded Grayling I'm glad you described them the way that you did as I've been trying to find a way to describe their flight myself and yours is spot on

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

I think your Skipper looks good for Sage, Matsukaze, from the details I can make out. I'd favour lachesis over galathea too, given the more delicate underwing markings.

[Matsukaze]

On Day 1 of our stay in Var - 18 June - I walked up a limestone gorge tucked away nearby the Lac de Sainte Croix. This is a good walk in May with plenty of unusual blues, pearl-bordered fritillaries, Spanish festoons and other species. This time numbers were slightly on the low side, possibly owing to the heat, with the stars of the show being an abundance of low-flying hairstreaks - blue-spot and ilex.

I discovered an area of wayleave under some pylons that I had not previously come across before. Black-veined whites were flying here along with plenty of hairstreaks and a few blues. There were also two fritillaries I could not identify - Niobe and a Mellicta?

The stars of the show, however, were the day-flying moths.

Beautiful Marbled

Cynaeda dentalis

Cydalima perspectalis - Box Moth

The non-native Box Moth has become extraordinarily abundant in parts of France, and I was turning them up regularly by day - in one wooded area that did not look like it held much box, I was putting a dozen or so up every few strides. Sooner or later, some bird species is going to have a population explosion in France based on this new, abundant food source.