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Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 7:19 pm
by NickB
That Knapweed had me guessing too - especially with Tolman open, as it looks like all/none of them! The black panel in the hind wing really threw me! JKT, you have my sympathy and understanding....we were very lucky to have Guy!
Putting our frits aside, I thought this deserved a showing (even if it is a moff
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
)
N
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:50 pm
by Rogerdodge
That's no Spotted Frit, but I hesitate to suggest what Guy might have shown you - Heath, Assmann's, Nickerl's, Knapweed etc. etc.
Of course I KNEW it was Knapweed.
I was just testing that's all!
![Embarassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:32 am
by Paul
Hi all,
have been sorting through my accumulation of pics, here are a few to go on with....
Short-tailed Blue..
Purple Emperor..
Alpine Blue..
Cranberry Fritillary..
Sorry if they were a bit slow to come up..
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:48 am
by Padfield
Textbook cranberry fritillaries, Paul! Male uns, male ups and female ups (the curve in her abdomen suggests that you photographed her in a brief pause from ovipositing). And ALL of them on cranberries!!
I'm looking forward to more posts from you all - remember, I didn't take many photos from the trip myself...
Guy
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:55 pm
by Paul
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 1:30 pm
by NickB
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 1:32 pm
by Padfield
That's phicomone. Palaeno flies predominantly over the Vacciniinum, a little below where we were and phicomone is the main species higher up.
I think that glandon is fresh out of the packaging!
Guy
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:05 pm
by Paul
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:27 pm
by NickB
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:41 pm
by Paul
... and wasn't it worth the climb!!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I think this may well be the same one...
and comparisons between Darwin's and Alpine Heath.. hopefully correctly labelled...
Alpine
Darwin's
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 5:23 pm
by Pete Eeles
NickB wrote:OK - The one we climbed all the way up to those sub-glacial meadows to see.....
That is one beautiful butterfly. I now have a goal for next year
Cheers,
- Pete
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 5:41 pm
by Padfield
Wonderful Cynthia! I got a different individual, so there were at least two there!
As for the heaths: very interesting. The second one is what I would call 'pure'
darwiniana (Darwin's heath), having clear yellow rings around the spots, which appear to be outside the white patch. The first must go down in the books as
gardetta (alpine heath) but is clearly one of the '
philedarwiniana' mixtures. You can see this if you look at this pure
gardetta, from a different valley, a little closer to me along the Rhône:
Note the small black spots set in white, like ermine, and the extensive dark and grey on both wings.
This is a pure
darwiniana, from the same site as yours, showing even more clearly the way the orange extends to the wing tips:
Fascinating stuff eh? Both species evolved from
arcania (pearly heath), which used to fly in the valley, but which hasn't been recorded there for a long time.
Guy
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 6:36 pm
by Paul
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:10 pm
by Padfield
I will reserve judgment on these male Boloria right now. The problem is, pales is very variable indeed and lots of the books give misleading ways of identifying them (Lafranchis gives a 'parallel spots' method which I just can't get to work). For what it's worth, that upperside looks most like pales palustris to me. I think I've been lazy here, as I say, because the females are so easy. I have seen females of both species at both those sites... When they're flying together, size is a good clue, because pales is always smaller.
I'm off hunting E. christi tomorrow with Yannick, the Swiss recorder, and will ask him what he considers the real identifiers are for the males. He spends hours pouring over Swiss specimens in museums and will, I hope, have noticed something that we can spot in your excellent pictures!!
Guy
EDIT: My Swiss 'bible' notes that the lilac tinge near the margins of the hindwing underside is almost never found in napaea, though occasionally found in pales. Your last one does seem to have lilac on my monitor...
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:37 pm
by Paul
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 5:06 pm
by Paul
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 6:33 pm
by Padfield
I'm glad it wasn't entirely wasted time, Paul, watching Diocletian give birth slowly to alien creatures... Opportunities like that to get
w-album down low are to be treasured!
I asked Yannick about male
pales/
napaea today. It turns out he is in exactly the same position as I am. In fact, he doesn't think there is a definitive way of telling them apart that works in every instance - it is more like
hyale/
alfacariensis, where you can tell some of the time but not always. Like me, he waits for the females to appear... I'm sure there is a way, though, and I will try to find it!!
We didn't go for
christi in the end. Last year Matt and I had a very, very tatty female a little earlier in July and the weather was a bit iffy today, so we decided to go hunting
populi instead. WHICH WE SAW!! Against all the odds, fleetingly, without photo-ops, a rather worn male, but undeniably
populi. My second of the year.
Here is Yannick, the energetic young man solely responsible for mapping Swiss butterflies, enjoying a lesser purple emperor (in the Rhône Valley, where neither of us have seen them before, though we knew they were supposed to be there):
And here is the lesser purple emperor in question, doing what emperors do...
Thanks to a few lucky breaks, including a small Apollo and a single, knackered, blue-spot hairstreak, my year total reached 196 today. I'm saving that fine old brandy you left, Paul, for no. 200!!!
Guy
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:31 pm
by NickB
Great shot Guy! And here's to that 200...almost time for the cigar!
A couple more I have had time to process...even
I can ID these....
![SWF_1_low_9th_July_2010.jpg (294.13 KiB) Viewed 840 times SWF posing briefly....](./files/thumb_1151_4f9ca8454cec4fc965b97305b49bb0ed)
- SWF posing briefly....
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:50 pm
by NickB
...and I think this
M. diamina False Heath Fritillary...
![Meadow_1_low_9th_July_2010.jpg (313.41 KiB) Viewed 836 times Butterfly Meadow](./files/thumb_1151_4109b668034193b1373fefbdee5c5a72)
- Butterfly Meadow
Re: Last of the summer wine... oh gawd
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:29 pm
by Paul