Parco Valle del Treja (Lazio, Italia)

[sonomoha]

Hello all,
I was out in Italy this week and there has been some opportunity to see something more in a magnificent place, half-hour drive North of Rome. There was a great butterfly count in the field and by the road. Unfortunately all were very active by the time I started taking photos so all photos were very poor (wind and fatigue)
Here, if you would please help me ID these, it would be fantastic. Thank you.
There were all kind of coppers and other blues, some very tiny.

[Padfield]

Hi Sonomoha.

Your copper is a small copper, Lycaena phlaeas. It's a really beautifully marked caerulopunctata (blue-spotted) individual - so much so that I wondered if it were something more exotic at first! The blue is a female silver-studded blue, Plebejus argus. No silver studs are visible on this individual but this is actually quite common, especially when they are worn. The closely related idas blue (P. idas) usually has at least some blue - often a lot - on the female upperside.

Guy

[sonomoha]

Hi Sonomoha.
Your copper is a small copper, Lycaena phlaeas. It's a really beautifully marked caerulopunctata (blue-spotted) individual - so much so that I wondered if it were something more exotic at first!

Hi Guy (-:
thank you for your help. The place was full of small coppers and quite a large numbers of this abb with a shiny blue dots. Nothing like the dull ones that I struggle to photograph

The blue is a female silver-studded blue, Plebejus argus. No silver studs are visible on this individual but this is actually quite common, especially when they are worn. The closely related idas blue (P. idas) usually has at least some blue - often a lot - on the female upperside.

Since they were quite different looking and the first one really worn, would you confirm both are Silver-studded blue ? Thank you again Guy

[Padfield]

Since they were quite different looking and the first one really worn, would you confirm both are Silver-studded blue ? Thank you again Guy

Plebejus is difficult, not least because of the huge variation within species from population to population. My best bet for both images (sorry - I hadn't initially spotted they were different individuals, though now it is obvious) is argus but I wouldn't like to 'confirm' without seeing more images from the same place. Perhaps someone who has visited the region might be able to.

Guy

[sonomoha]

Thank you Guy.
At the moment, I am not aware of anyone else going in that area besides the friend that took us there (-:
Maybe in a future visit, I hope to put more time into the butterflies as well.