Re: Picos id`s please.
Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:31 pm
A few observations that hopefully may help.
#5 looks 100% aglaja to me; just expanding a little on what Guy said - the ino margins are very rounded (and continuous in ino – one of the differences compared to Marbled Fritillary B. daphne where the black border is usually not continuous) and the black submarginal spots sit nicely in the rounded areas. In aglaja the submarginal black spots are strongly arch-shaped and usually quite heavy; niobe is very similar but usually less heavily marked in this area, but I have one or two aglaja photos from this year that I am very uncertain about.
The Satyrium hairstreak looks 100% False Ilex (S. esculi) to me. I see thousands every year (Guy may remember one site in particular) and they don’t seem to vary very much. The only confusion could be with Ilex (S. ilicis). I have put the two species together on my site with some detail as to what I find to be the key differences.
The #2 Fritillary is the big imponderable. It does not like the nominate form of dejone that I see from time to time in south-east France. Dejone is decidedly orange, upperside and underside, and the female has a marked contrast between the bands. When I (too rarely) see it, it is almost instantly recognisable. The photo may disguise the degree of orange, so only the photographer will know what it looked like in the field. I’m not aware of any form of dejone that occurs in the Pyrenees or the Picos that is not the nominate form, but I add the rider that widely-separated populations of most species can differ markedly (some severe bet-hedging here).
Like Guy, I have never been overly convinced by the orange palpi clue. In the shots on my dejone page, none have obviously orange palpi, although the camera angle is not geared toward getting a clear shot of the palpi. I suspect it is one of those ID clues that if it is present, it is 100% true, but the converse may not always be true. We are all waiting for Tim to write the definitive book!
It doesn’t look like Heath Fritillary (M. athalia) either. The form vernetensis of the False Heath Fritillary (Melitaea diamina) flies in the Pyrenees and this is what I would go for. The neatness of the upf post-discal series looks good for diamina and compares well to the illustration in Tolman. Lafranchis refers to a club-shaped spot (I think it looks like a key) in upf s1b for vernetensis and this is certainly true for the ones I saw in the Pyrenees a few years ago (a photo is on my diamina page http://www.butterfliesoffrance.com/html ... iamina.htm). However, the Tolman illustration of vernetensis really does not show this. Maybe another of those non-exclusive clues. Higgins & Riley specifically gives the Picos as part of the distribution for vernetensis.
When I took this shot of vernetensis it was just off a hairpin bend north of Andorra and I was prostrate on the ground. Apparently passing motorists stopped to ask my wife if everything was OK, assuming I was an accident or heart attack victim. The French could accept the rationale of a road accident more easily than laying flat out to photograph a butterfly.
Diamina is a very variable fritillary, I find, even among the nominate form, both in terms of markings and size. 11743 on my diamina page is probably going to be removed once I have had a good look at it.
#5 looks 100% aglaja to me; just expanding a little on what Guy said - the ino margins are very rounded (and continuous in ino – one of the differences compared to Marbled Fritillary B. daphne where the black border is usually not continuous) and the black submarginal spots sit nicely in the rounded areas. In aglaja the submarginal black spots are strongly arch-shaped and usually quite heavy; niobe is very similar but usually less heavily marked in this area, but I have one or two aglaja photos from this year that I am very uncertain about.
The Satyrium hairstreak looks 100% False Ilex (S. esculi) to me. I see thousands every year (Guy may remember one site in particular) and they don’t seem to vary very much. The only confusion could be with Ilex (S. ilicis). I have put the two species together on my site with some detail as to what I find to be the key differences.
The #2 Fritillary is the big imponderable. It does not like the nominate form of dejone that I see from time to time in south-east France. Dejone is decidedly orange, upperside and underside, and the female has a marked contrast between the bands. When I (too rarely) see it, it is almost instantly recognisable. The photo may disguise the degree of orange, so only the photographer will know what it looked like in the field. I’m not aware of any form of dejone that occurs in the Pyrenees or the Picos that is not the nominate form, but I add the rider that widely-separated populations of most species can differ markedly (some severe bet-hedging here).
Like Guy, I have never been overly convinced by the orange palpi clue. In the shots on my dejone page, none have obviously orange palpi, although the camera angle is not geared toward getting a clear shot of the palpi. I suspect it is one of those ID clues that if it is present, it is 100% true, but the converse may not always be true. We are all waiting for Tim to write the definitive book!
It doesn’t look like Heath Fritillary (M. athalia) either. The form vernetensis of the False Heath Fritillary (Melitaea diamina) flies in the Pyrenees and this is what I would go for. The neatness of the upf post-discal series looks good for diamina and compares well to the illustration in Tolman. Lafranchis refers to a club-shaped spot (I think it looks like a key) in upf s1b for vernetensis and this is certainly true for the ones I saw in the Pyrenees a few years ago (a photo is on my diamina page http://www.butterfliesoffrance.com/html ... iamina.htm). However, the Tolman illustration of vernetensis really does not show this. Maybe another of those non-exclusive clues. Higgins & Riley specifically gives the Picos as part of the distribution for vernetensis.
When I took this shot of vernetensis it was just off a hairpin bend north of Andorra and I was prostrate on the ground. Apparently passing motorists stopped to ask my wife if everything was OK, assuming I was an accident or heart attack victim. The French could accept the rationale of a road accident more easily than laying flat out to photograph a butterfly.
Diamina is a very variable fritillary, I find, even among the nominate form, both in terms of markings and size. 11743 on my diamina page is probably going to be removed once I have had a good look at it.