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Views from above the ancient village of Nevache  More butterflies from our visit to the Alps, a walk around the campsite.

Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) Marbled Fritillary (Brenthis daphne) Marbled Fritillary (Brenthis daphne) Silver Studded Blue (Plebejus argus) Apollo (Parnassius apollo) Apollo (Parnassius apollo) Silver Studded Blue (Plebejus argus) Marbled Fritillary (Brenthis daphne) plus Heath Fritillary (Melitaea athalia) Heath Fritillary (Melitaea athalia)

Lovely scenery, Jim. I presume you visited this area in late June or early July?

I'm sorry to poke in, but there are a few butterflies that look to be species other than those captioned.

The first appears to be a Small Skipper, and I'm pretty sure your Marbled Fritillary is actually Lesser Marbled. The clear cell in the middle of the underside hindwing is a factor, and the upperside markings look good too.

Might your first 'Silver Studded Blue' actually be Idas? It looks to have the right ground colour and the spots are a little smaller than I'd expect in SSB.

With less certainty (and Roger or Guy will be better placed for this), your 'Heath Fritillary' looks more like Provençal, with the general 'clean' brown look to it rather than the heavy black markings one often finds with athalia.

I agree the marbled fritillaries are lesser marbled. And though I agree the skipper is not large skipper, I do wonder about Lulworth. Small skipper usually has a well demarcated apical area on the forewing - more so than Essex, which this is clearly not. But Lulworth can have uniformly golden underside forewings, like this one, photographed in Switzerland:



That might also explain why you confused it with a large skipper, if you saw the darker upperside.

I wouldn't like to call the first Plebejus. David might be right but the species is variable in size and this often affects how crowded the spots feel.

As for the heath fritillaries - I think this is what they are, not Provençal. They are very typical of what used to be called celadussa and is now generally recognised as a distinct species, Melitaea nevadensis. For confirmation, note among other things the heavy branding in ss.1 and 2 of the underside forewing.

As ever, I wish I were there!

Guy

David your query is the easy one to answer we were at Nevache on the 05-07-2019, I included Nevache on our journey following advice from Mr Guilloton a respected French lepterdopteris friend who responded to a request for information on where I might find Nickel’s fritillary, the description of the valley also appealed.It is a very attractive valley although the single track road above the village of Nevache is not easy to drive in a C Car, it was rather disappointing as I didn’t find any butterflies , that said, stop off points were far and few between, perhaps I should have persevered but chose to returned down the valley to continue our voyage.I was, as is often the case puzzled by the identification of the species you comment on, the skipper was one such, looking on websites it does seem to be a good match for a Lulworth Skipper - Thymelicus acteon, the possible Idas  does seem to be differently marked, Idas or Silver - studded- blue they were very numerous , the fritillaries are always puzzling .
Your observations are as always informative and helpful, thank you both, very much appreciated.
The most puzzling are yet to come so a little patience will be needed.
My wife and I enjoyed this valley, my only regret, my knees no longer allow me to walk as once I did.
Our next port of call Barcelonnotte via the Col de Vars.
The Church of St Marcillan

Hi Jim,

The Claree valley was once an allegedly good location for Pieris ergane and Euphydryas intermedia. I went there several times, but not recently, and went to the end of the "interesting" road, stopping off at Le Jadis. I did not find either species but I did find several hundred sheep devouring everything in sight. This may be the reason why I saw so little there. I heard a few days ago that ergane no longer flies there, although lepidopterists tend to say that when they don't find a species in its former haunts when of course it may still survive in places no-one has visited.

Roger