Butterflies of Var, Southern France

[Roger Gibbons]

Correction – the underside image is not of the Melitaea in question. It was taken on 8 July at a site known for aurelia as the upperside showed some indication of aurelia, but I am fairly sure it wasn’t. So the reservations we all expressed about the unf s2 heavy shading would no longer apply.

Which still raises the question as to what it is, if we can ever know.

I throw out some thoughts:
I see a lot of athalia (in its various forms) all across France where it is widespread and sometimes common. It is very variable in its markings. I have never seen one looking even remotely like this one, even allowing for the fact that it is, or may be, to some degree an aberration. It was quite noticeably small and the flight was weak, although as it is a female, that may be less convincing.

The question mark really hangs over aurelia. We are familiar with the “lowland form”, its rather regular bands and flight pattern. But it also occurs up to 1900m and the upper reaches of the Durance are a stronghold (see the maps in the CEN-PACA Atlas) where the altitude is in the range 1600-2000m and these aurelia resemble the lowland form quite closely, but can also deviate to quite a degree. It does not appear (in France at least) to fly at intermediate altitudes. Which raises the question: how far can it deviate from the regular pattern of the lowland form? What is it about the ones that don’t look like the lowland form that says they are aurelia?

It is also true that aurelia and athalia can fly together and athalia has to a greater or lesser degree the regularity of bands that defines aurelia. I have images of athalia that, were it not for the location, could easily be candidate aurelia.

Looking at trusted sites:
Matt Rowlings has many images, showing a wide variation in markings, some very different from classic (including one that looks 100% athalia to me).
Philippe Bricaire has a number images, some classic from Switzerland, but some from the upper Durance at altitudes of 1600-1900m, including one female that looks far removed from classic. Philippe is a very thorough analyst whose IDs I would be reluctant to question.

I have images from the upper Durance at 1900m which have been identified as aurelia by Philippe, where the females were more heavily marked than the males (as is often the case for athalia), plus the underside of a male that clearly confirms that aurelia was flying there.

It seems to me that there is little information on the altitude form. I will dig deeper when I am back in October.

Roger

[Roger Gibbons]

12-13 July: Various locations around Briançon. An exploration of tracks and dead-end roads leading off the N94 south of Briançon, just see what was flying there. Not many unusual species, male Provence Short-tailed Blues (Cupido alcetas) seen in two locations, a species that I suspect is often overlooked.

The two forms of Titania’s Fritillary (Boloria titania) are quite markedly different but can fly together. This is a male of the nominate form, very clean and crisp, engaging in rather unusual behaviour of “hugging” a flower at the start of the day, the only reason I can think of is to warm up. Either way, it looks a little odd through the macro lens with limited depth of field.

This is a female of the subspecies cypris, not uncommon in the southern French Alps, with a rather dusky, suffused appearance. The underside has purple marbling which also differentiates it from the nominate form.

14 July: A trip to the Queyras, one of my favourite locations, along with half of France, given the date. This would give an interesting insight into the lateness of the season. Very little was flying at the upper reaches around 2550m, mainly Dewy Ringlets (E. pandrose) looking rather fresh suggesting the season was about two (maybe three) weeks behind. It did give me an opportunity to get a photograph a reasonably fresh male, which was a plus from the lateness of the season as I am usually there at the end of the its flight period.

There were a few Dusky Grizzled Skippers (Pyrgus cacaliae) which looked freshly emerged but no sign of Cynthia’s Fritillary (E. cynthia).

Lower, at around 2000m, there were not the usual numbers puddling. There were a few Pyrgus grizzled skippers, most looking quite fresh, tending to confirm the lateness of the season. I had posted images of two earlier, but I’ll repeat here just to complete the series.

This is a male alveus, I believe. It was large, and that is usually a good clue.

Safflower Skipper (P. carthami) is (almost) instantly recognisable from the hindwing markings.

Carline Skipper (P. carlinae) is of a similar size and markings to most Pyrgus, but the oft-quoted clue is the “C-shaped” upf cell mark. It’s not always clearcut, but this one leaves no room for doubt.

This is an Olive Skipper (P. serratulae), probably the most common of the high altitude Pyrgus and quite prone to variation in the strength of markings, especially on the forewing.

And what I am reasonably sure is Warren’s Grizzled Skipper (P. warrenensis), the smallest of the Pyrgus, and undoubtedly the most uncommon. Other Pyrgus can be quite small – I have seen a lot of Grizzled (P. malvoides) that were only about 2/3 normal size – notably serratulae and even alveus.

15 July: On the way to the Col d’Izoard.
I also encountered this Erebia ringlet which puzzles me. In a year when the numbers of Erebia seemed to be decimated, Almond-eyed (E. alberganus) was still – as would be normal in any year – the most frequently encountered and this almost fits the bill but the unh red patches look more circular than lanceolate. I haven’t looked in detail, but the only other contender could be Woodland Ringlet (E. medusa) although that is highly unlikely to the point of impossible given the location and altitude of 1850m, so a rather aberrant alberganus it must be. The subspecies tyrsus flies in the western Alps and probably all of the ones we see are tyrsus; it has slightly more rounded unh red marks, but still essentially lanceolate. Comments invited.

Next stop the Col d’Izoard, plagued as usual by bikers and cyclists. There is a spot a few hundred metres from the road where I had seen Sooty Ringlet (E. pluto) previously. There were a couple of pluto here, not stopping, so the best photo I could get was of a black smudge. Also an Alpine Grayling (Oeneis glacialis), not a common sight (even in an even-numbered year), which allowed a distance shot but then disappeared never to be seen again.

To complete the trio of very high altitude species, a female Peak White (Pontia callidice), the first female I have ever seen. It wasn’t fresh as the photo attests, and only a distance shot, but a first is a first.

16 July: Next to a Col not far from Briançon where I had previously seen Larche Ringlet (E. scipio). This is a highly elusive species as anyone who has read Pete Smith’s quest will affirm. Here, it entails a trek along a rocky track, a rise of 150m, to a flattish puddling area. There were good numbers of Glandon Blue (Plebejus glandon), a few Eros Blues (Polyommatus eros) and a couple of Alpine Blues (Plebejus orbitulus) - a male pictured below, always a pleasure to see, and one Erebia which caused a momentary flutter but turned out to be a Piedmont Ringlet (E. meolans)

17 July: To a location in Ain where I had previously seen Alcon Blue (Phengaris alcon alcon), the lowland nominate species. No sign of alcon, maybe just too early.

18 July: A trip to a private site near Lyon with a friend from Lyon and two French local experts to look for Large Copper (Lycaena dispar) at a location where it had been seen previously but may no longer fly there. We found one female, photo below, which looked pristine, and a few males.
Given that we had found it there, I could crack a joke in my primitive French – dispar n’a pas disparu. I guess you had to be there.

19-21 July: Essentially travelling to Calais stopping at a few places along the way, the species now becoming more “British”. Here is a Speckled Wood (Parage aegeria) near Lyon. It is a female of the nominate form and the photo was taken in overcast conditions, and I had to use a shutter speed of 1/40s and was pleasantly surprised at how well it came out.

All in all, a very enjoyable trip with some very nice surprises along the way.

Next year? Already in the planning stage.

Roger

[Roger Gibbons]

Just back on the subject of aurelia for a moment, here is an extract from the CEN-PACA Atlas showing the distribution of aurelia in the Hautes-Alpes.

It may come as something of a surprise to those who are used to thinking of aurelia as essentially a lowland species, that it has such a stronghold at high altitude.

Roger

[Pete Eeles]

Given that we had found it there, I could crack a joke in my primitive French – dispar n’a pas disparu. I guess you had to be there.

Cheers,

- Pete

[David M]

..14 July: A trip to the Queyras, one of my favourite locations, along with half of France, given the date. This would give an interesting insight into the lateness of the season. Very little was flying at the upper reaches around 2550m, mainly Dewy Ringlets (E. pandrose) looking rather fresh suggesting the season was about two (maybe three) weeks behind. It did give me an opportunity to get a photograph a reasonably fresh male, which was a plus from the lateness of the season as I am usually there at the end of the its flight period.


There were a few Dusky Grizzled Skippers (Pyrgus cacaliae) which looked freshly emerged but no sign of Cynthia’s Fritillary (E. cynthia).

Fresh pandrose in mid-July!! That suggests things were around three weeks late. I was seeing worn ones in the Arctic a week prior to that date!

Shame about the absence of cynthia. I haven't seen one there since 2022.

[Padfield]

Hi Roger. I tend to agree with you on that alberganus, but in Switzerland medusa commonly flies that high. At lower altitudes it is generally an early Erebia but at altitude it flies well into July. I saw a lot at 1750m this year, on 19th July.

Is there a reason you rejected bellieri for that first Pyrgus, that you call alveus? Was it the location, or the size? Alveus is such a variable species across its range I must admit I have difficulties with it. The Swiss forms are completely different from yours, though I have seen similar to yours in the Pyrenees.

Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

Hi Guy,

It looked fairly normal for alveus in that region, where it is usually encountered but not common.

For foulquieri (bellieri), I would expect the upf markings to be stronger and rather jagged at the edges. This seems to be constant for males, females being very different (which I mention for anyone not familiar with this species).

I would also expect the uph discal mark to more clearly defined.

I did crouch with the trusty Papilios to get a view of the unh which looked normal for alveus as far as I could see. For foulquieri, the discal s1 mark is unusually large which seems to be constant.

Circumstantially, foulquieri is not shown in the PACA Atlas as occurring anywhere near that region, only a pointer but probably carrying a lot of weight given the amount of data that went into the Atlas.

Equally, foulquieri is generally a species of medium altitudes, the Atlas showing its upper range to be about 2000m and the majority of records being around 1000m.

The alveus situation is rather muddled by the subspecies accretus, but I tend to think that accretus is more strongly and cleanly marked than the nominate form.

For the Erebia, medusa is all but unknown from the PACA region. Circumstantial again, but probably overwhelmingly so.

These are just my observations. As always, anyone is free and welcome to question my reasoning.

Roger

[Padfield]

Thanks Roger. It was precisely because it was a little jagged (I think of it as the paint running along the grain of the wood ...) that I wondered, because in regions where bellieri/foulquieri does fly, alveus is the one that causes the problems! I'd like to have a sure-fire way of distinguishing them without having to sneak beneath and look at their bottoms!

Guy

[Bert-Jan Luijendijk]

Hi Guy, for what it's worth: I would probably never ID any pyrgus with a high degree of certainty from its upperside alone, but that might just be a psychological issue , but in case of foulquieri, I would say that the following combination of characteritics are very strong pointers towards a positive ID of a male foulquieri as I have not found this set yet in any alveus:

- overall: uph and upf being remarkably rich/vivid in contrast and colours (black, grey, coldbrown, warmbrown, straw-colour, white) with distinct markings;
- strong, white and distinctly jagged upf markings on C1B, C2 and C3, with C2 and C3 being in line / connected with each other;
- a distinct basal, discal and submarginal band (3 bands) on the uph, with the discal mark being very large, while the basal and discal markings are straw-coloured and the submarginal markings grey or straw-coloured.

I photographed attached specimen 2 weeks ago in the Mercantour and I think this individual sums up what I mean.

For an example of a certain alveus (reared as larva) with jagged markings, see: http://www.pyrgus.de/bilder1/hesperiida ... _m2009.jpg

Just my 2 cents!

[Padfield]

Thank you, Bert-Jan - that's helpful. I have very little experience of bellieri as it doesn't fly in Switzerland, and where I have seen it (in the Pyrenees) the local alveus are of the bright, well marked variety that can cause confusion. Our Swiss alveus are entirely different.

Guy