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Satyrids - Browns & Heaths

Probably the most ubiquitous species on this trip was Iberian Marbled White with multi thousands seen in all habitats:
This made it tricky to locate the other melanargia species in the area, Esper's Marbled White. The latter's greater size was a giveaway, and probably around half a dozen were positively identified:

Satyrids - Browns & Heaths cont...

All three species of Gatekeeper were present throughout - Spanish, Southern as well as good old tithonus which we see here in the UK. I paid scant attention to them, sadly, as they were difficult to approach even early in the morning and so much was flying that pricked my interest more than they did.

Amongst the Heaths, it was strange to be in an area where Pearly Heath was probably the rarest amongst this group. Small Heath wasn't much commoner. The two that were most numerous were Dusky Heath and the beautiful Spanish Chestnut Heath, which looks more like a Russian Heath than the Chestnut Heaths I see in the French Alps:

Satyrids - Browns & Heaths cont....

In France, I'm used to Meadow Browns in smallish numbers and the same situation was true here. Unlike France though, where Dusky Meadow Brown is tricky to find, there were several hundred flying around, and for the first time I saw females which have the additional underside forewing spot:
A few Oriental Meadow Browns were encountered too. They appeared a little smaller with a more uniform dark coloration to the underside hindwing and quite pronounced scalloping:

Satyrids - Browns & Heaths cont....

One species we hoped rather than expected to see was Southern Hermit, a butterfly whose range in Europe is restricted to Spain.

Thankfully, there were quite a few, probably 15-20 in total:
Numbers actually exceeded those of Hermit, 7 or 8 of which were also found:

Satyrids - Browns & Heaths cont....

There were several Black Satyrs to be found on the first full day in a dry, dusty location replete with spiny scrub. They were tricky to photograph and this was the best I could muster:
The big surprise though was the presence of Great Sooty Satyr which I see in the multi-hundreds in France. However, their Spanish distribution isn't supposed to extend much further south than the Pyrenees, so it looks like this might be a first record from the Montes Universales:

Pierids & Papilionidae

With so much else flying, I didn't concentrate too much on these families, but there were plenty of them about, including three Apollos which was a bit of a surprise.

Iberian Scarce Swallowtail was the pick of the bunch, with several immaculate specimens observed:

David M wrote:Pierids

With so much else flying, I didn't concentrate too much on this family, but there were plenty of them about, including three Apollos which was a bit of a surprise.

Iberian Scarce Swallowtail was the pick of the bunch, with several immaculate specimens observed:

6.IberianScarceSw(1).jpg

One presumes a minor typo here... either that or there's been some major taxonomic juggling since I last looked

Nice pic regardless of family though

bugboy wrote:..One presumes a minor typo here... either that or there's been some major taxonomic juggling since I last looked..

Yup, BB, the taxonomists have been busy lately. They deemed feisthamelii to be worthy of distinct species status earlier last year.

Pierids & Papilionidae

49. Apollo
50. Iberian Scarce Swallowtail
51. Swallowtail
52. Wood White
53. Black Veined White
54. Large White
55. Small White
56. Green Veined White
57. Bath White
58. Clouded Yellow
59. Berger's Clouded Yellow
60. Brimstone
61. Cleopatra

David M wrote:

bugboy wrote:..One presumes a minor typo here... either that or there's been some major taxonomic juggling since I last looked..

Yup, BB, the taxonomists have been busy lately. They deemed feisthamelii to be worthy of distinct species status earlier last year.
]

I was referring to your listing of Apollo's and Swallowtails in with the Pierids

bugboy wrote:...I was referring to your listing of Apollo's and Swallowtails in with the Pierids..

Ah yes, I realised that too and amended the headers. Lazy editing on my part!

Hesperids

A good assortment of this family, including a few I hadn't seen before.

The most common was, believe it or not, Cinquefoil Skipper, which was seen in decent numbers practically every day:

Hesperids - cont...

Another species present was Southern Marbled Skipper, a butterfly I've looked out for many times in France over the years but hadn't hitherto seen:

Hesperids - cont....

The other member of this family that I was especially delighted to see was Sage Skipper. They tended to be found in the drier, dustier spots, where sage was still looking quite green and healthy!

Looks like a highly satisfying trip David! I would have picked up a dozen life ticks there...
Just out of interest, are you counting "Spanish Chestnut Heath" as a separate species, rather than sub-species of glycerion? I can't see it listed as separate in the latest European Checklist on the BC-EBG website, but there seems to be some differences of opinion amongst varying authors as to the taxonomic status of iphioides. Either way, species or sub-species, it is a gorgeous looking heath!

petesmith wrote:Looks like a highly satisfying trip David! I would have picked up a dozen life ticks there...
Just out of interest, are you counting "Spanish Chestnut Heath" as a separate species, rather than sub-species of glycerion? I can't see it listed as separate in the latest European Checklist on the BC-EBG website, but there seems to be some differences of opinion amongst varying authors as to the taxonomic status of iphioides. Either way, species or sub-species, it is a gorgeous looking heath!

I agree - it's a lovely insect! The taxonomic question is still controversial, even though most authors today accord iphioides specific rather than subspecific rank. A problem is the hybrid taxon, pearsoni, from E. Spain and S.W France. It's the same kind of thing that upsets the easy classification of darwiniana and gardetta in the Alps (and indeed, galathea/lachesis and podalirius/feisthamelii in the same regions of France and Spain). We make all these boxes to put Nature in and it turns out she's not quite the right shape to fit them!!

Guy

Pete/Guy,

Thanks for the input, and I like your summary of the situation, Guy, as certainly in Spain one finds oneself in a kind of 'twilight zone' where European species are often at their southernmost limit, and in many cases are so different from their nominal forms as to be classed as separate species.

I found my Tolman & Lewington rather inadequate at times to be honest. It was published in 2009 and things have changed somewhat since then.

There's no Azure Chalkhill Blue for a start, and iphioides is merely mentioned as a subspecies to glycerion.

In short, I am NOT classing it as a distinct species but it is SO visually different that I thought I'd make it clear by adding the descriptive 'Spanish' to the name.

You merely need to look at the image of it rather than have me write reams of explanatory text on a subject that is largely beyond the scope of my understanding.

It is a beautiful insect and absolutely unlike the Chestnut Heaths I see to the point of boredom in SE France.

I could have gone further by describing Red Underwing Skipper as Spanish Red Underwing Skipper. According to the updated taxonomic checklist published last year, spialia rosae has now been split from spialia sertorius, but to look at the insect you wouldn't know.....it's visually identical to sertorius.

PS - I can't tell the difference between Woodland Grayling and Rock Grayling either, but given the distribution maps, fagi does not occur more than 30km or so south of the Pyrenees so I naturally defaulted to alcyone.

Much as I love butterflies, I wouldn't want to be the one who had to squeeze abdomens and examine genitalia to arrive at these conclusions!

Nymphalids - Aristocrats

You know you're having a spectacular time when you all but ignore this group.

There weren't many about, although one Large Tortoiseshell kept us entertained at a puddling site early in the trip.

The only species I bothered to photograph was this Southern White Admiral, and that was only because a) it settled with its wings wide open, and b) it was unusually scantily marked for this species: