www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Glad to have sparked this interesting debate, Roger and Guy - it is really helpful to see you explain your thinking.

Let's deal with the Dusky Meadow Brown vs Oriental Meadow Brown first. The various distribution maps I've seen suggest that Oriental doesn't exist in that part of the Picos. Of course that doesn't mean it doesn't, new colonies can always be found. Added to this, my co-guide for the trip has been visiting this area for years, and never known of Oriental to be there either. Again, it doesn't mean it isn't there, but it is useful to have local insight. The other factor was that this individual was noticeably smaller than the Meadow Brown's in the area. All the ID guides I can read suggest that Dusky Meadow Brown is smaller than both Oriental Meadow Brown and Meadow Brown. All this has me strongly leaning towards Dusky, accepting that these are tricky species to tell apart.

Onto the Hipparchia that I labelled as Rock Grayling, apologies, that was a genuine mistake, I was rushing. I have now corrected.

And of course, Guy, I'll try to remember to post the specific dates of the sightings in the future. I'll also look to edit the former posts.

I put this image blind to a French expert who has studied lupina and confirmed IDs by examining the male upf, so he is well qualified to comment. His view was that it is lycaon, with quite a degree of uncertainty, based on the irrorations (speckles), which I thought quite light and pointed towards lupina, so I’ll go with lycaon. So how are these two species differentiated with any degree of confidence, without examining the male upf?

I don’t have books with me, but I have a vague recollection that Lafranchis says lupina has no discal line and his photo clearly has one. Who can you believe when the butterfly deity contradicts himself?

I would be wary of using size as a means of differentiating (these two) species. You have to see both, and in good numbers, to be able to make any sort of judgement. Female satyrids are often larger than males. I think I can tell Rock Grayling (Hipparchia alcyone) and Woodland Grayling (H. fagi) apart in flight, just, given that fagi is slightly larger.

As to known distributions, France is still very much under-recorded, although I have no knowledge if the same is true in Spain. Before we went to Var in 2006, it was believed that Provence Hairstreak (Tomares ballus) only occurred (in France, only in Var) in two locations. I had researched various locations to explore before we went to Var and subsequently found five new locations, some very far removed from either known location. The effect of this was for CEN-PACA to organise a working party every April to look for it in other possible locations and, lo and behold, they were finding it more often than not.

Roger

Totally agree with all you say Roger. Distribution maps are just an indicator of things. I too have discovered new colonies of some species, far away from previous known locations. It shows how much new stuff can still be discovered, even by amateurs such as myself!

Day 3 of the trip (14th July 2024), and our morning was spent near Yugueros, our furthest location south and west all week, which gave us very different habitat to explore.

The first stop was along a road, where a large colony of Bee Eaters are known to breed. They put on a fabulous display for us, a delight to see so many of this most colourful of European birds. The second stop was a bit further along the road, near a monastery. We saw our first Spanish Purple Hairstreak’s (Laeosopsis roboris) of the week, our only Blue Spot Hairstreak (Satyrium spini) of the week, as well as a bunch of various Grayling species. Also this lyllus form of Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus). We stopped briefly for coffee in Cremenes, before having lunch at the nearby picnic spot. Scarce Copper (Lycaena virgaureae) was seen here. The afternoon was a walk along the river from the village of Las Salas, where we parked. Here we saw Lang’s Short Tailed Blue (Leptotes pirithous), Southern White Admiral (Limenitis reducta) and Large Wall (Lasiommata maera). Near the end of the day, we suddenly saw a very large butterfly, which landed only briefly by the track, a Lesser Purple Emperor (Apatura ilia).

That said, there were many less butterflies around than the previous year at this location, both in terms of numbers and species. This reflected the experience across much of western Europe during 2024.

Despite the lower numbers, we still saw 55 species of butterfly over the course of the day, taking us to 72 species overall.

Day 4 of the trip was the 15th July 2024. Prior to breakfast, we had an early morning walk in our village hotel, with the specific target being birds. While there was occasional drizzle, the tail end of an overnight weather front, we still saw a good number of species, including White Stork, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Red Backed Shrike, Sand Martin, Nuthatch, Black Redstart, Common Redstart, Grey Wagtail and Dipper.

After breakfast, we spent the whole day in the Valdeon, at various sites. On the way to the first main site, we stopped briefly at a viewpoint where we were able to take in our first views of the spectacular and beautiful Picos massif.

We then moved on to a very sensitive site, known for the incredibly rare (in Spain) Woodland Brown (Lopinga achine). Despite extensive searching, as part of a survey Pau had arranged for us to do, none of us saw any of our target species. It had been there last year, and I'd seen a brief view of one fluttering away. But I was disappointed to miss out on a better viewing this year. But we did see Marbled Skipper (Carcharodus lavatherae), Short Tailed Blue (Cupido argiades), Adonis Blue (Polyommatus belargus), and Dark Green Fritillary (Argynnis aglaja). One of the guests was particularly pleased to photograph a still Cleopatra (Gonepteryx cleopatra), one of his main aims of the week. While he had seen this butterfly before, he’d never had one stay still enough to photograph.

We stopped briefly at the site of the last Wolf Trap ever to be used in Spain, and then briefly again in Posada de Valdeon for coffee, before having lunch at a picnic site nearby.

The afternoon was then spent near the viewpoint from the morning, one of the best sites for Chapman’s Ringlet (Erebia palarica), the largest Erebia in Europe, and a Picos endemic. All of us got great views, although photographs were harder to take, as they were quite active in the hot sunshine. Also seen here were our only Apollo (Parnassius apollo) of the week, plus Purple Edged Copper (Lycaena hippothoe).

Our total butterfly species for the day was 53, with 9 being new, taking us to a week total of 81.

Our first stop in the morning of Day 5 of the trip (16th July 2024) was a brief one to take in the views across the reservoir near our hotel. We then moved onto Puerto de Las Senales. This had been an excellent site the previous year, but this year, high cloud was obscuring the sun, and very few butterflies were flying. Also, an excellent pond for dragonflies had been trashed by cattle and horses! That said, we did get our best views of Knapweed Fritillary (Melitaea phoebe), Meadow Fritillary (Melitaea parthenoides) and Provencal Fritillary (Melitaea deione) of the week, allowing us to discuss the key identification features. We moved on, stopping for coffee in Acebedo, before our lunch stop near La Una. Here we had our first views of Dusky Large Blue (Phengaris nausithaus), an extremely rare butterfly in Spain. They are very confiding, especially when feeding on their favoured sanguisorba foodplant, allowing us to take some good photographs. After lunch, we walked along a track and back, and it actually got quite hot. Purple Edged Copper (Lycaena hippothoe) was seen, as were both Lesser Marbled Fritillary (Brenthis ino) and Marbled Fritillary (Brenthis daphne).

Day 6 of the trip (Wednesday 17th July) was the most anticipated of the week, up Fuente De. This was our longest drive of the week, but well worth it for the spectacular views and higher altitude species.

Having booked the cable car ahead, we were on the mountain plateau by 11am, allowing us to take a leisurely stroll to the scree areas. There were large numbers of Griffin Vulture, plus a small number of Egyptian Vulture too. Butterfly numbers were low, but we did quite quickly find one of our main targets of the week, Gavarnie Blue (Agriades pyrenaicus), on the main track. Many of the walkers passing by were also interested to see what we had stopped to take so many photographs of! One of the guest, Pau and I walked ahead, and did our best to identify every Erebia that flew past. Only Piedmont Ringlet (Erebia meolans) was confirmed sadly. I did see what appeared to be an all black Erebia in flight through my binoculars, but it was too far away to confirm this as one of our other main targets, Lefebvre’s Ringlet (Erebia lefebvre). We also failed to see Wallcreeper, albeit we’re confident it was there, if we’d walked a further kilometre. In our binoculars, we could see a large number of birdwatchers focusing their own binoculars on the scree, where a pair of Wallcreeper are known to breed.

On the way back to the cable car, the group split in two. Pau and I took some uneven ground to a dried out pond. Here there were good numbers of Gavarnie Blue. But there were also large numbers of Oberthur’s Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus armoricanus) too, as well as our only Chalkhill Blue (Polyommatus coridon) of the week. The highlight however was a single freshly emerged Western Brassy Ringlet (Erebia arvernensis). The rest of the group took the main track, arriving earlier at the cable car station, seeing a very close fly past of a Lammergeier! One of the guests took some amazing photos, including one of it with a bone in its talons.

A thoroughly enjoyable day all round, we celebrated with some refreshments.

On our final full day (18th July 2024), our first stop was at another good Dusky Large Blue (Phengaris nausithaus) site. There were good numbers, which was fantastic to see. Here we also saw Esper’s Marbled White (Melanargia russiae), an extremely aged Glanville Fritillary (Melitaea cinxia) and Red Underwing Skipper (Spialia sertorius). After a brief coffee stop, we drove on to Puerto de San Glorio, where we had lunch, and then spent an hour exploring the plateau. There were good numbers of Chapman’s Ringlet (Erebia palaricia) here also. We had a shortened afternoon, to allow for some guests to pack before dinner, so we stopped at a site Pau had never visited before, but always wanted to, nearby to where a colony of Bog Fritillary had gone extinct a few years previously.

While we didn’t see that species, we did see Scarce Copper (Lycaena virgaureae), amongst a number of other more common species.

Our list had reached 90 species of butterfly by the time we did it that evening. We also spent time discussing our individual highlights of the week, which were many, but included the scenery, the convivial company, the relaxed pace including coffee stops, and of course the butterflies and birds.

Departure day (19th July 2024) was an extremely early rise for myself. One of the guests had an extremely early flight from Santander airport, which meant him and I setting off from the hotel at 5am. (Pau and the other guests had a much relaxed day, with them only needing to be at the airport for mid-afternoon).

I myself also had a late afternoon flight, but from Bilbao airport. So when I'd dropped off the guest, I drove the 75 minutes to the outskirts of Bilbao, for another one of my Dryad (Minois dryas) sites. This time I wasn't disappointed. It was only 10am, but the skies were clear and it was extremely hot and muggy. Almost straight away I saw my first Dryad. I should have spent more time with this individual, as it ended up being the only one I saw that settled for longer than two seconds! But I was distracted by the bobbing flight of a species I wasn't expecting, but was delighted to see! Large Chequered Skipper (Heteropterus morpheus)! The flight pattern is unmistakeable, even though I've only seen it once before 8 years previously. After taking my time with this individual, I then spent 90 minutes chasing various other Dryad individuals through thick grass. I'd read before that they quite liked to settle on Scabious flowers. They weren't having any of that today though. They all seemed pretty freshly emerged, perhaps that was a factor. I had to resort to taking screengrabs from videos I took. Here are the best two, still not brilliant. It was then time to hand the hire car back, and head to the airport. It was the day of the Crowdstrike IT incident, and the airport was chaos, including my own flight with Vueling having to resort to pen and paper. Thank goodness though, it was only delayed by an hour. Many other flights were completely cancelled. I arrived back in Sheffield at 11pm.

Having spent 30 of the last 42 days butterflying in Europe, it was time to get back to work!

selbypaul wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2024 10:56 am...The afternoon was then spent near the viewpoint from the morning, one of the best sites for Chapman’s Ringlet (Erebia palarica), the largest Erebia in Europe, and a Picos endemic...

So good to see that, Paul. It's a phenomenal size...and a phenomenal butterfly.

David M wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2024 7:51 pm

selbypaul wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2024 10:56 am...The afternoon was then spent near the viewpoint from the morning, one of the best sites for Chapman’s Ringlet (Erebia palarica), the largest Erebia in Europe, and a Picos endemic...

So good to see that, Paul. It's a phenomenal size...and a phenomenal butterfly.

It really is double the size of some of the smaller Erebia. Makes me wonder why it evolved this way, as the furthest west of all the European Erebia species.

Dryad and Large Chequered Skipper ain't a bad combination, Paul. I've still not seen the former, but I intend to put that right soon.

David M wrote: ↑Tue Sep 10, 2024 3:55 pm Dryad and Large Chequered Skipper ain't a bad combination, Paul. I've still not seen the former, but I intend to put that right soon.

It's very rare I've seen a butterfly that you haven't! This one came at some cost!