Catalonia's Butterflies
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:52 pm
Hi all,
I recently spent some time in Catalonia and came across some decent butterflies including Great Banded Graylings, Two-tailed Pashas, Bath Whites, Clouded Yellows, Plain Tigers, Sage Skippers, Mallow Skippers, Striped Graylings, Tree Graylings, Lang's Short-tailed Blues, Long-tailed Blues, Wall Browns, Speckled Woods, Large Skippers, Common Blues and a few others I forget. I could have seen more but a fever during the holiday hampered my desire to travel far.
I have just sorted the photographs and named them. I have two problem species.
The first one could be rather embarrassing but it did vex me. I suspect it could simply be a Gatekeeper but there were quite a few of them and their behaviour did not match the Gatekeepers I see in the UK. None of them held their wings open in the sun. It does not come over as good for Spanish gatekeeper either and the nearest match in Tolman & Lewington I manage every time is Common Brassy Ringlet. Is this a sound conclusion?
The second picture I suspect is an 'ordinary' Grayling? It was seen high up on the Garraf massif just south of Barcelona.
Regards,
Andrew.
I recently spent some time in Catalonia and came across some decent butterflies including Great Banded Graylings, Two-tailed Pashas, Bath Whites, Clouded Yellows, Plain Tigers, Sage Skippers, Mallow Skippers, Striped Graylings, Tree Graylings, Lang's Short-tailed Blues, Long-tailed Blues, Wall Browns, Speckled Woods, Large Skippers, Common Blues and a few others I forget. I could have seen more but a fever during the holiday hampered my desire to travel far.
I have just sorted the photographs and named them. I have two problem species.
The first one could be rather embarrassing but it did vex me. I suspect it could simply be a Gatekeeper but there were quite a few of them and their behaviour did not match the Gatekeepers I see in the UK. None of them held their wings open in the sun. It does not come over as good for Spanish gatekeeper either and the nearest match in Tolman & Lewington I manage every time is Common Brassy Ringlet. Is this a sound conclusion?
The second picture I suspect is an 'ordinary' Grayling? It was seen high up on the Garraf massif just south of Barcelona.
Regards,
Andrew.