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Yesterday I walked back from Villars with snow falling all around - by late morning today it was hot enough to make a little butterfly trip a viable prospect.

In the Rhône Valley, thirteen species were flying. Most abundant of all were the clouded yellows, which adorned every meadow and hedgerow. Here is one sharing a meal with a female Berger's pale clouded yellow:



They ignored each other.

This is a male northern brown argus, romancing a female common blue - who likewise ignored him:



After clouded yellows, Adonis blues were the commonest species:





Chalkhill blues and common blues are also flying, but there are no fresh blues of any species on the wing:


(chalkhill)


(common)

Here is a small copper, getting seriously stuck into a dandelion head:



As you would expect, Queen of Spain fritillaries put in a good showing:



There are no other fritillaries left.

The only white was green-veined:



A very few tree graylings are still alive:



Their usual place on the rotting grape pile was taken today by a single red admiral:



There were so many fruit flies swarming over the grapes I could take a picture of the cloud!



The final two species were brimstone - a single male, roding and never stopping - and wall, of which I saw two in total. Here is one of them, taken from a considerable distance unfortunately:



No CCTV cameras in the Rhône Valley, but I was being watched all the same ...



Guy

padfield wrote:Yesterday I walked back from Villars with snow falling all around - by late morning today it was hot enough to make a little butterfly trip a viable prospect.

In the Rhône Valley, thirteen species were flying.

Doesn't that just demonstrate the difference between your neck of the woods and ours? Snow falling a short while earlier, but a tally of species that nobody over here will see until late April at the earliest!

Absolutely, David. It's amazing what a difference just a few degrees of latitude make to the height and radiant warmth of the winter sun!

Guy

I usually write up my butterfly reports on the train and just stick in the pictures when I get home, so I happen to have a copy of the one that got away! Here is yesterday's report again - apologies for the déjà vu:

16th November

It was bitterly cold in the morning, with snow still on the ground around my house when I left at about 10h00. Cycling down the hill felt dangerous, with patches of frost still on the road in the shade, and even with gloves my hands were frozen by the time I reached the valley. I had some business to do there first, then headed east along the Rhône, reaching my site at about midday, quite prepared to draw a blank on the butterfly front. But in the end I found 7 species still flying.

Queens were quite common. It is looking possible I might see them in December this year, for the third consecutive year, but that's still two weeks away and anything could happen to the weather. Here is a male …



... and here a female.



Clouded yellows were the other common species. Again, here is a male ...



... and here a (helice) female, lying flat against a muddy incline to get maximum warmth from the sun:



This helice female spent all afternoon doing the dandelions:



A few Berger's clouded yellows were drifting around with them. This is a male:



I saw a single small copper - twice, but I'm fairly sure it was the same one:



A few Adonis blues were still flying too. I photographed a couple of females from a distance but failed with the one male I saw. He was messing around on a steep, rocky, grassy slope and I never got close to him. Here is one of the females:



On the north-facing slopes there was snow almost down to the valley floor. Here is a little village a hundred metres or so above the Rhône.



The last two species were both a surprise - and I photographed neither. First was a painted lady, flying strongly and in good condition. The other was a small tortoiseshell. These normally go into hibernation long before now and I suspect this one had hibernated months ago and been roused by the strong sun today, after so much cold and snow. Like many of today’s butterflies, they were flying over terrain where it was hard to follow, like this:



Apart from the Queens and the small tortoiseshell, all today's butterflies could best be described as survivors. There is not much left for them, and they are unlikely to procreate fruitfully, but they were apparently enjoying these last few days of their lives!

Guy

I've said it before and I'll say it again That's a great haul even if some are in their dotages

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks (again), Wurzel!

Snow now lies thick on the ground at my altitude and it is white down to the valley. Today I decided to work from the train and pay another visit to the Papiliorama. It's a poor substitute for real butterflying but still a pleasure, and my return visits have so far always resulted in new species and different balances of the old ones.

For the first time, I found several pairs mating today. These are Heliconius charitonius:



These are Heliconius melpomene:



And these are Morpho peleides:



It's nice to see real behaviour in this artifical environment.

The only early stages I found were a few larvae of Papilio thoas, looking very like bird droppings:



Species I haven't shown in my diary before included this beautiful Colobura dirce (which is on the British list and figured in the famous UK Butterflies website, though it calls the Neotropics its home) ...



... Consul fabius, from South America ...



... Pachliopta kotzebuea, one of the 'rose' swallowtails, from the Philippines ...



... Siproeta stelenes (the malachite), from Central and South America ...



... Anartia amathea, from South America ...



... and Papilio palinuras, from South-East Asia...



I was pleased to catch this Morpho peleides showing off:



As usual, there were a few I am unsure about.

The first is the lower butterfly in this picture. It was on the 'wing-drying tree' and I didn't see its upperside, nor risked disturbing it:



Next, this Heliconius species:



The underside forewing is marked similarly to the upperside and the underside hindwing is almost unmarked.

I only got very poor pictures of the other mystery species - there were a lot of people there today - and I'll probably get better views next time I go.

There are always lots of quail-like birds minding their own business on the ground in the Papiliorama:



And for the sharp-eyed (which doesn't include most visitors), a few other exotica:



Guy

Hi G

Looks lovely and warm in there. Think the birds are Chinese Painted Quail.

Hi Guy,

I'm not sure about the Heliconid (a difficult group) but the other looks like a male Charaxes protoclea.

Kind regards. Mark

Thanks, both, for the IDs. The quails seem incredibly vulnerable poking around under people's feet while their eyes are fixed on aerial wonders - and I can't see any justification for including higher vertebrates in zoos like this - but they do seem reasonably contented and there are always young around.

I think you've hit the nail on the head with Charaxes protoclea, Mark. I had guessed at this genus but not got round to going through the full catalogue of them! You've spared me a lot of work!

Guy

padfield wrote:Thanks, both, for the IDs. The quails seem incredibly vulnerable poking around under people's feet while their eyes are fixed on aerial wonders - and I can't see any justification for including higher vertebrates in zoos like this - but they do seem reasonably contented and there are always young around.

I think you've hit the nail on the head with Charaxes protoclea, Mark. I had guessed at this genus but not got round to going through the full catalogue of them! You've spared me a lot of work!

Guy

Back in the 80s when I was involved with some British Butterfly House operators, using Quails in large breeding or flight areas was commonplace. Asked why, my commercial breeder friend explained they keep the predators down. Don't know if they actually do that but, they are nice to see about the place anyway.

Unless Guy has been uber-selective with his images, that Butterfly House appears to be very well run.

One of my breeder friends based in Gloucestershire grew Banana Plants for rearing the crepuscular Caligos in his large garden Greenhouse back then.Caligos being well-named "Owl" Butterflies. He uses a long polytunnel now. One banana plant grew so massively, he had to dig a deep hole in the floor of his set up after repotting the plant in a large dustbin.. It became massive and even 'flowered'. He raised quite a few of those large Caligo species and they consumed much of his plants. Lot of work in the UK.

He also brought back a Morpho ovum allegedly he squeezed from a dying female whilst on holiday in Costa Rica. He also brought back a sprig of the foodplant and some how managed to raise an imago with these unusual and limited resources.

I have since raised fine Morphos on an easy to grow Leguminous plant ... Plants grown from the seeds of .... Peanuts! Best not to use salted or roasted ones though... Some of these tropical Butterflies are far easier to breed and rear in captivity than many of the British species.

My friend breeds these Chinese quail and keeps them in his three large outdoor aviaries.

They're adept at eating the fallen seed from the birds that can fly and are quite entertaining with their antics. They're also remarkably tame. Whenever I go in to fill up the seed vials, I have to shoo these critters out of the way so I don't tread on them.

It seems tropical houses are a kind of global ecosystem, sealed off from nature but with largely the same species everywhere, as if they've moved into a special niche, dependent upon humans! I suspect there is more genetic movement within this ecosystem than there is between it and the natural environment. Chinese quails and owl butterflies seem to thrive here!

Yes, CC, I think the Papiliorama is well managed. The visitors are, on the whole, well behaved too, even though most of them are young children and one suspects not all of them chose to go.

For anyone interested, I found a livecam watching a feeding station at a butterfly farm in Florida. Right at the moment there are a couple of Hamadryas februa supping at the bananas - a species I've yet to see in the Papiliorama though I am quite sure I will before long!

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/exhibits/alway ... ation-cam/

Guy

Thanks for posting the pictures. It's great to see butterflies again. I particularly like the "Canopy Cam"!

Thanks Nick. It's as cold here as I expect it is chez toi, and even in the Rhône Valley there's no hope of wild butterflies flying for the foreseeable future.

I did once get the kit to set up a butterfly cam in my garden but I couldn't get the wifi camera/server to work. That was some years ago, so I bet they are much easier to set up now. I might investigate again for next summer and see if I can do something on my balcony.

Guy

Wall to wall sunshine today - as there has been for the last two days, in fact. But the radiant heat has barely penetrated the icy air hanging over Switzerland at the moment, even in the hottest parts of the Rhône Valley.

This is in the valley floor:



The slopes in the sun, on the left of the picture, are where I photographed the last set of Swiss butterflies, further up this page - but nothing flew there today!

Even in the sun, this small stream did not thaw:



Winter is here ...



Guy

1st December - and it looks as though my chances of a December Queen (or any other species, for that matter) are very slim.

It was brilliant sunshine today, but even the hottest parts of the valley, in the sun all day, were more suited to skiing than walking:



Here is a favourite spring large tortoiseshell spot:



So it was a lovely walk, but no butterflies!

I raced round the course, aiming to be home in time to watch the sun set, just in case ISON should be visible. But the sky was still far to bright after the sun had dipped below the mountains for a 1st magnitude object to show. However, over the next few weeks it will get further and further from the sun and if it really has survived might make this December very special.

Guy

Good post mortem on ISON with excellent coronagraph images.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronom ... ortem.html

I have to say that coronagraph images taken in space really are impressive.

Jack

Jack Harrison wrote:Good post mortem on ISON with excellent coronagraph images.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronom ... ortem.html

I have to say that coronagraph images taken in space really are impressive.

Jack

Thanks Jack. It looks as if I might dip out on this one then, unless it catches its third wind! I got up on several mornings before dawn to try and catch it, when it was about +3.5, but we had far too much cloud clover - and at that magnitude it was probably too close to the sun to see anyway.

Remember the press this comet got when it was first discovered? Sadly the cynics might be proven right.

Guy

It's still very cold in the valley but the south-facing vineyards, basking in the sun all day, have thawed out:



Even on the sunny side of the valley snow lies on flat ground:



Nevertheless, two butterflies, doubtless kept in some kind of cryogenic suspension during the recent cold spell, woke up and enjoyed the day. This male clouded yellow was very conspicuous among the dead vine leaves:



My second ever December wall:



There were no Queens. Unlike clouded yellows and walls, these do go into a sort of hibernation and I think that has now been triggered.

Guy

Wow, what an amazing thing to see a Wall Brown in the snow! Nice sighting, Guy.