Fell free to post on this thread, Guy (or anyone else). I don't consider it my personal diary.
More from my travels:
This is an underside of a very fresh male Purple-shot Copper (
Lycaena alciphron). It didn’t really open its wings, but no matter, the underside is almost as appealing.
This is a typical male Meadow Fritillary (
Melitaea parthenoides), deep orange colour, uph “gappy”, oblique black mark in upf discal s1.
Back in the Mercantour, Meleager’s Blue (
Polyommatus daphnis) is one species I usually miss as I am the region too early, sometimes a male is on the wing but rarely a female, so this year I went in the third week in July and was not disappointed. The male is first, lovely ghosted marginal markings, and the uniquely scalloped hindwing makes the female unmistakeable. The female is of the brown form
steeveni.
This Niobe Fritillary (
Argynnis niobe) had two rather strange white patches on the underside and these were replicated on the upperside, too. Very strange.
I’ve managed to go a little while without a
Pyrgus underside, so here is a male Carline Skipper (
Pyrgus carlinae), very neat markings and a very rich red-brown ground colour.
Grayling (
Hipparchia semele) is sometimes encountered in small numbers in the Mercantour, although in much of the département of Gard it can sometimes be very common, and in one place I counted over a hundred.
I have some history with Sooty Ringlet (
Erebia pluto), having seen it at two locations in the past two years when it never settled to allow a photo. This year I got lucky with this heavily gravid female at 2600m. There were males but they flew almost incessantly as they are wont to do, stopping only briefly to nectar from Dandelions half-way up the rocky scree, enabling some very fuzzy distance shots. The males are jet black on both surfaces while the female has the usual
Erebia red bands on the upf.
It’s not all exotic species, and a familiar Silver Washed Fritillary (
Argynnis paphia) can be just as appealing, as evidenced by this very fresh male. I think the photo almost catches the silvery streaks.
Dusky Meadow Brown (
Hyponephele lycaon) is a species that is found at medium to high altitudes. It is smaller than its common cousin and the unh is rather “rougher” and greyer. It is mostly males that are seen, but this is actually a rarely-seen female.
Dusky Large Blue (
Phengaris nausithous) is a very localised and threatened species of the wetlands. In France, it only occurs in very small colonies in the east of the country. It usually flies in company with Scarce Large Blue (
P. teleius) and at this location, there were very healthy numbers of both flying. This is a mating pair, probably the female uppermost. Not a common sight.
The journey ends near Lyon where the Dryad (
Minois dryas) is quite numerous in its localities. I find the female, as below, to be a fascinating species – why should a Satyrid have such large blue centres to its ocelli?
