www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Chequered skipper!!

These riddles are getting hard to match!

Guy

Over to you Guy.

Denise

OK, as promised, a few IDs for you from my afternoon trip up the local mountain. I spent most of the time between about 1800m and 2000m and all these pictures were taken in that range.

Here's your starter for 10. Should prove no problem...


A bit harder, but there are enough clues in the picture:


Finally, upperside and underside of something that is really easy in the field but might challenge you if you're not used to Alpine butterflies!! The upperside was taken from some distance and is a rubbish picture, but it may help all the same.



I need all three please. English or Latin names are fine. And I'm out again shortly, so don't hang impatiently over your computers waiting for a reply!

Guy

Alpine Heath, Cranberry Blue and Water Ringlet ssp vergy?

Misha

Alpine Heath, Cranberry Blue, De Prunner's Ringlet?

Denise

Alpine Heath, Cranberry Blue and Sooty Ringlet?

Alpine heath, Cranberry blue, Swiss Brassy Ringlet

I see the first two posed you lot no problems... For the third, Misha is spot on, though he might have added that it's a male . This looks in flight like a completely black butterfly but there are usually one or two small ocelli visible in the forewing apex. On the underside, the purplish reflections are characteristic.

All yours, Misha!

Guy

Thanks Guy.
Well, here's something not too taxing for the grey matter:
Of which common British butterfly did Linnaeus originally describe the two sexes as different species?

Misha

Selvedged Heath Eye and the Golden Heath Eye - Male and Female names for the gatekeeper which is now known as the Small Heath and gatekeeper as we know is a different species entirley

Afraid not, Dave. Read the question again carefully!

Misha

I did and it says "Of which common British butterfly did Linnaeus originally describe the two sexes as different species" which is what the Small heath was, Selvedged Heath Eye and the Golden Heath Eye (Both male and female but each described as a seperate species) and after this he wanted to put an end to the naming confusion. But I uess your thinking of something else though, so I'll keep thinking.

Dave
Linnaeus gave us the Latin Names.

Dave, Linnaeus gave latin names to butterflies and many other things. He invented the system we use now, a generic name and a specific name. For one of our species he gave different latin names to the two sexes because he thought they were different species. It wasn't the gatekeeper, though it could well have been.

Misha

Golden Hairstreak ( female ), Brown Hairstreak ( male ) Thecla betulae

or,

Two butterflies, known as the Selvedged Heath Eye and the Golden Heath Eye, were later discovered to be the male and female of a single species which then became known as the Gatekeeper, but is now known as the Small Heath, Coenonympha pamphilus.

Denise

No sorry Denise. As far as I know the species I'm after has only ever been known by one English name. It was the ingenious latin speaking Swede who got things wrong.

Misha

Studying the Linnaean type specimens at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/research-cur ... nTypeID=51 this janira looks very like a male meadow brown - and he named the female jurtina. So that's my guess.

Guy

Exactly right.. Thanks for that link. Back to you, Guy.
P.S. I've just looked at the figure of Janira. If you look at the large label, it says under the name janira: " mas jurtinae" the male of jurtina. Was that added later, I wonder?
Misha

There is an explanation of the labels on the site. It says: "The small labels associated with the images are by Linnaeus, while the larger ones were added subsequently by Sir James Edward Smith, who purchased Linnaeus's collection".

So yes, you are right.

I'll see what I can think of now for you all!!

Guy

Living, adult female pale clouded yellow and Berger's pale clouded yellow are so similar you normally have to go on a balance of probabilities when identifying them, even in the hand.

HOWEVER, under certain circumstances it is possible to have very great confidence in the identification, even in areas of distributional overlap. Explain.

Guy