Butterflies of Var, Southern France
Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 1:46 pm
Hello everyone, I’ve been down in Var in the far south of France since 9 April and the weather, which is usually wall-to-wall sunshine at a steady 25C at this time of year, has been very unsettled with more rain already than we usually get in a whole summer. The butterflies were very slow to get going but have almost caught up, with some warm sunny days in the past week, and my 2008 species count is now 57 (2007 total 175) whereas I had seen 65 at this stage last year. There are naturally some compensations for the terrible deprivations we’re suffering, and here are a few:
9740 Southern Festoon (zerynthia polyxena). A species that is out at the end of March and has disappeared by the end of April. It’s magnificent when fresh as 9740 is, but tends to start losing the red and blue hindwing scales after a few days. 10470 Marsh Fritillary (euphydryas aurinia). While this has very specific habitat requirements in the UK, it seems unrestrained over here and I have seen it in dry arid locations at sea level and, like 10470, at altitudes of 1000m and it occurs much than this. Not something that you’d think of as a mountain butterfly 10262 Osiris Blue (cupido osiris). Slightly smaller than a Common Blue but with an underside very similar to the Small Blue (cupido minimus) to which it is closely related. This is a courting pair, female below. The male upperside is totally bright blue, making ID from Small Blue very easy. The female (and often the male) are almost always seen on the larval foodplant sainfoin, which they are on here.
9740 Southern Festoon (zerynthia polyxena). A species that is out at the end of March and has disappeared by the end of April. It’s magnificent when fresh as 9740 is, but tends to start losing the red and blue hindwing scales after a few days. 10470 Marsh Fritillary (euphydryas aurinia). While this has very specific habitat requirements in the UK, it seems unrestrained over here and I have seen it in dry arid locations at sea level and, like 10470, at altitudes of 1000m and it occurs much than this. Not something that you’d think of as a mountain butterfly 10262 Osiris Blue (cupido osiris). Slightly smaller than a Common Blue but with an underside very similar to the Small Blue (cupido minimus) to which it is closely related. This is a courting pair, female below. The male upperside is totally bright blue, making ID from Small Blue very easy. The female (and often the male) are almost always seen on the larval foodplant sainfoin, which they are on here.