www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Whoops! Well spotted JKT!

Doing two things at once is not a good idea!

As JKT was too polite to say, that's a cranberry frit.

Guy

Thanks Guy! ..and JKT...I thought I'd got it wrong....I had labelled it as Cranberry - I was reaching for the trip-list...
Nice to know both your and my confusion of sites and shots also increases with time!
I knew we had seen PB as well! (Wasn't sure if I got a picture, there were so many to see...)
I think I may have some better shots of erebia...
I processed a few more... (I have another little brown skipper from by the riverside site I think....)
You are very kind Guy - All that glass keeps me fit - and if I buy it, I have to use it and therefore carry it all as well...
Just look at all my glass, and see it as my equivalent of your bike - I carry kilos of glass, you cycle - up and down mountains...
N
Edit: Saw your ref to Grisons ....

That GSS is very special, Nick! Beautiful to capture one with four clear white pupils on each wing like that. And nice to see the swifts zooming around near my house...

I asked Yannick about the caterpillars that I thought were small Apollo when they were crawling about on bare rock near sedum but not when we started finding them on clovers and trefoils!! They are (as a look on UK Moths had already suggested to me) Zygaena exulans, the 'Scotch' burnet.



Guy

EDIT - yes, that is Grisons frit, Nick.

NickB wrote: ...and birds like this (Honey?) Buzzard....

Hi Nick,
unfortunately I think that's just a normal Buzzard, with quite light plumage. For a start, I think if it was a honey buzzard the neck should be quite a bit longer. The buzzards are confusing because they can have quite a bit of variation in the colour. However, I am prepared to be told by someone in the know that clearly I don't know what I'm on about
Michael

Thanks - raptors are always tricky what with juveniles and natural variations. Nice bird anyway!

Any more thoughts on the Boloria Guy.... the more I look at Tolman, the more I think pales rather than napaea.... I know you said they were probably undiagnosable, but how would you label them? I would say those markings are far more macular than linear

Taken at Simplon...



and at the other Alpine site...

I'm inclined to think you're right, Paul, but the honest truth is that I just don't know - pales in particular is extremely variable. What I do know is that both species are common upland butterflies in my region and the females, which fly from mid-July onwards, are quite distinctive and unmistakable. Sometimes the males are distinctive in the field, particularly when you get a more macular, small, male pales, or a large, bright orange, superlinear, male napaea, but often, through laziness, I just call Boloria and confirm the species when a female comes along. Quite often I'm really looking for something else, and the Boloria are zooming around - so I don't chase them. It's a project for next year, perhaps!!

I remember the Simplon butterfly - it was one of two posing together when we found them. I have photos too, of one of them, and despite the uncontrasting undersides I am happy to call them pales. By way of contrast, I am quite sure this one, photographed at the other site, is napaea:



I will keep investigating, but if you (or anyone else) come up with something you think is definitive, let me know! I find the Lafranchis method quite useless - it doesn't even seem to work for the pictures in his own books, unless I'm misinterpreting it somehow!! When something definitive is found, apart from size, I think it might well be on the underside.

To be continued...

Yeah, thaks. I appreciate the issues. Will probably re-label them on best guess basis, with reservations++ I 100% see your napaea as that!

Well - there are quite a few of those...
I have this as Marbled, but I could be wrong...as there were quite a few Knapweeds as well... ..this IS Marbled, I believe... Both from the river site on day 2....as is this..
our Red-Underwing Skipper?.. A couple of Heath's...

Hi Nick,

The foreshortening of the forewings in the first picture distorts the apparent shape and it doesn't look like marbled fritillary, but I'm pretty certain that's what it is. The markings and the shape of the hindwing are all correct. The second picture is definitely marbled frit.

You're also right with the red-underwing skipper - no doubt about that. And the last two heaths are both gardetta (Alpine heath). The status of this species is not at all clear, as you know, because it hybridises regularly with darwiniana and even with arcania when that is available, I believe. There is a region in France (I think) where all three species fly and share their genes around. I was talking to Yannick about this the other day. Like me, he recognises 'pure' darwiniana (South of the Simplon it is exactly like in the books) but doesn't know exactly at what stage an insect stops being gardetta and becomes darwiniana. We both, as it happens, take the yellow rings as the criterion, but you can find insects with these very vestigially present. Yours are at the gardetta end of the spectrum, though, so there is no real difficulty in assigning them!

Guy

Thanks Guy - I will label them correctly.
Here's one of our Small Heath's from Burwell Railway cutting, nr Newmarket...Suffolk, just...
N
One of those Dusky Large Blues...at rest..

Napea or pales/palustris - Napea seems to have more yellow in the markings in the second-inner ring on the upper-hindwing than pales - looking at Tolman. But that doesn't seem to match the differences in the field
I would put Paul's first one as napea, like the one I've posted here from the second day as we came down to the tunnels from Cynthia.....and the second one looks more like napea in Tolman....nothing like the pales from the same day, slightly higher up(?)
Edit Ah well - Paul called it right - A Grison's from a different angle.... ..also is this erebia pandrose - Dewy Ringlet ...?
N
Edit: Paul - you are good at these IDs.....

I'd go for Swiss Brassy with the second one.... but no idea about the first but isn't it Mellicta species which should make it Grison's??!!

Thanks Paul - now I'm thoroughly confused.......
...continuous black band does look like Grison's....

Both right, Paul. The first is varia (Grisons fritillary) and the second tyndarus (Swiss brassy ringlet).

E. pandrose (dewy ringlet) also has a relatively pale underside hindwing, though the darkness varies greatly, but the pattern is different. Of course, in the field there is no possibility of confusion (my regular mantra!!). Pandrose has a very characteristic flight, which appears to be totally dopey and sideways (I think it should be called the dopey ringlet) and although it is apparently a weak flier, it will go a long way before putting down. It is almost invisible on the ground and nearly always gets up again just before you see it. Very hard to get pictures of!

Here is one taken this year in rubbish weather, when it was a little easier:



Guy

and couldn't resist (re) submitting the pandrose I followed for ages until it settled.... grass stems photoshopped out now



I didn't see the underside though.

Phicomone or Palaeno? Taken on the second day above the tunnels, 1/2 way to top of path. My guess because the discoidal spot, despite being quite large, does have a clear centre....is palaeno - Moorland. There were a few of them where we stopped from coming down from Cynthia where we drank the glacial water from the stream
N

Hi Nick,

That's phicomone. The hindwing demarcation is one thing to look at, although the overall jizz is different. Here are a male and female palaeno:





I think you'll agree they look much smoother altogether, and the wing shape is different.

For comparison, here is a phicomone:



Guy

Thanks - yes - true small clear discoidal spot is distinctive on your examples...
N

Still sorting thro'....
Not even going to try with this one
Fourth day... and this one - an old Large Blue on the last day...? N
How's the cat?