Moroccan butterflies

[Essex Bertie]

Just returned from a week's coach tour of Morocco. Despite consistent afternoon temperatures in the mid to high twenties, I was surprised that I saw less than 20 butterflies all week. About a dozen whites, 2 Painted Ladies at the roman ruins near Meknes. A Moroccan Hairstreak here also and another near Beni-Mellal. On the north edge of the mid-Atlas range (750m) an unidentified blue that was no bigger than a Small Blue and had a dark upperside glimpsed in flight. Any help with I.D. would be appreciated. Also, surprised to see another larger Lycaenid (no photo) on the edge of the Medina, Marrakech.
Does anyone know how I might record these sightings, please?

Painted Lady

Tomares mauretanicus (Moroccan Hairstreak)

unidentified Lycaenid

Rob

[David M]

Hi Rob, great that you saw mauretanicus. I shall be visiting Morocco in May and hope to see this species along with a few of the other endemics.

As for your lycaenid, I've looked through Tarrier's excellent book, Les Papillons de Jour du Maroc and can only really reconcile it with an extremely faded zizeeria knysna. The female of this species is a charcoal colour on the upperside, although this is a very small butterfly and you state it was larger than the Moroccan Hairstreak you saw, so that may rule out knysna.

[Padfield]

Sorry - I forgot to reply earlier.

Yes, this is definitely knysna. I think Rob indicated that the larger Lycaenid got away.

The strength of markings on knysna is quite variable. Extremes I have seen are from ...



... to



Guy

[Essex Bertie]

Hi David & Guy,
Thanks very much for your replies. Great that you could identify the knysna, thank you. Just to clarify, it was possibly the smallest butterfly that I've seen. No larger that C. minimus that I've rarely witnessed.
Good luck David, with your expedition. I found it a beautiful country.
I've got accurate grid references for these sightings, so I'll keep them by. Maybe a Moroccan recording scheme will emerge in the future.
Rob

[David M]

Apologies, Rob. I'm guilty of 'skim reading' your original post.

Glad that Guy could confirm. Now I know the insect was very small I really don't see what else it could have been.

[Essex Bertie]

Hi David,

Thanks for your reply. Glad that you agree.

best wishes
Rob