South East Spain

[Lee Hurrell]

Hi all,

Just back from Spain and I know where all our Painted Ladies may have gone anyway.... there were thousands of them.

Other species seen include:

Swallowtail
Plain Tiger
Clouded Yellow (plus one or two possible Pale Clouded to ID, photos to follow)
Long Tailed Blue
Bath White
Large White
Wall
Red Admiral
Peacock

Crimson Speckled Moth
Possible Spurge Hawk Moth
Hummingbird Hawk Moth
Some more moths to ID.

Some photos and ID requests to follow!

Cheers

Lee

[Padfield]

I look forward to the photos and ID requests.

Guy

[Lee Hurrell]

I've finally finished sorting through my photos (about 450 from 6 days) and a bit like Denise I've just realised I spent most of the trip with my camera on the wrong setting resulting in under exposed and dark images I've managed to correct some and some aren't too bad. Some of the better ones are below.

However, my dad has lent (I'm sure he said gave ) me a Canon 75-300mm zoom lens which I've brought home and was playing around with while out there so not all bad!

Butterfly of the holiday

Swallowtail

Plain Tiger

Hang in there!

Bath White

Long Tailed Blue

About to land

Clouded Yellow

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

Crimson Speckled

ID Requests

I'm reasonably sure this is f. Helice (it's the same individual)

Not so sure on this one, it was more 'pale yellow' in flight than white. Sorry about the focus, best one I had of this one...

I think this is a Spurge Hawk Moth?

No idea what these ones are...

I have handful of Dragonflies too, perhaps these would be better on that thread, or the new website?

Cheers

Lee

[Padfield]

Great pictures!! I couldn't get to Spain myself this year, so I'm having to enjoy your sightings by proxy.

The lucky shot of the blue coming in to land does look like a female long-tailed blue, but the next one is Lang's short-tailed. You seem to have it labelled with the one above it.

Guy

[Lee Hurrell]

Thanks Guy

Blimey, you're right. I've just gone over all my blues photos and I have more of Lang's Short Tailed too!

This is the same 'lucky' LTB female:

Cheers

Lee

[Denise]

Hi Lee,

I love the Plain Tiger shots. Really well done. I've never seen one myself, but they are high on my wish list.

Denise

[Lee Hurrell]

Thanks Denise,

I didn't really know what I might see and I'd never seen them before either. It was one of those 'what on earth is that moments! But they were quite common really and every day I saw a different mating pair.

Cheers

Lee

[Dave McCormick]

Lee, lovley shots, like the flying ones! (Yeah I know I'm on late but can't really sleep, so came on here) and that moth you could not identify is http://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesP ... Pudica.htm Cymbalophora pudica, I think its known as the "White Tiger" in France or something. The second moth is a tortrix I think, don't ask me which one, I have trouble with soe of our native tortrix moths.

Hummingbird Hawk Moth is a great shot, well lucky you got one, I failed this year so far.

The Crimson Speckled Moth is a lovley looking moth, I have only seen one moth like that, Ornate Moth (Utetheisa ornatrix) from the USA, but its a lot less speckled than that moth.

[Zonda]

Those Plain tigers are amazing, and your caption on the mating pair is hilarious. What sort of size are we talking with these??

[Mikhail]

Hi Lee.

I agree with Dave about the tiger moth and with you about the hawkmoth, but your third moth is Acontia lucida the Pale Shoulder, a noctuid and occasional migrant to these shores.

Misha

[Lee Hurrell]

Dave, brilliant thanks, that's the one! The Crimson Speckled is very pretty in flight, you can really see the pale blue hindwings.

Zonda, about the size of a Monarch, a little smaller perhaps. They had a lovely gliding flight. It's funny, all the Painted Ladies were being very flighty with some courting and they would attack anything that flew too close but they wouldn't mess with the Tigers!

Misha, thanks again, that's definitely the one! I read that the Spurge is an occasional visiter too.

After Guy's Lang's Short Tailed ID, I went through the rest of my Blue photos and they were all either LTB or LST. The only one I couldn't decide upon was this one. Can anyone ID from the upperside only?

Now, does anyone have any idea on those yellows??

Thanks again all,

Lee

[Padfield]

I would say that is Lang's - assuming it is one of the two (which I think it is). Key points are the rippling underside forewing, visible through the upperside, the very weak spot in the anal angle and the consistently narrow dark border to the forewing (in LTB it broadens towards the apex). The butterfly has lost its tails, but this is not uncommon.

Your first yellow is certainly helice. The second is clouded yellow, rather than either of the pale clouded yellows, so I would again say it is helice, despite showing some yellow. Normal female clouded yellows are deep butter orange, not pale yellow.

For those who've never seen them, or to bring back memories for those who have, here's an old video I took of a pair of plain tigers flirting. This was on the Canary Island of La Palma:

http://www.guypadfield.com/movies/chrysippuspair.wmv

Guy

[Denise]

Thanks Guy,
I enjoyed that clip.
Denise

[Lee Hurrell]

I would say that is Lang's - assuming it is one of the two (which I think it is). Key points are the rippling underside forewing, visible through the upperside, the very weak spot in the anal angle and the consistently narrow dark border to the forewing (in LTB it broadens towards the apex). The butterfly has lost its tails, but this is not uncommon.

Your first yellow is certainly helice. The second is clouded yellow, rather than either of the pale clouded yellows, so I would again say it is helice, despite showing some yellow. Normal female clouded yellows are deep butter orange, not pale yellow.

For those who've never seen them, or to bring back memories for those who have, here's an old video I took of a pair of plain tigers flirting. This was on the Canary Island of La Palma:

http://www.guypadfield.com/movies/chrysippuspair.wmv

Guy

Thanks again Guy, invaluable help as ever!

Am I right in thinking that helice that are butter (it was more primrose really) yellow rather than white are possible?

Nice vid too. I saw plenty of that, it was great when they fly straight at you and circle back round to where they were as it appears happened to you too.

Cheers

Lee

[Padfield]

I've never seen a helice that appeared significantly yellow in flight. They do, however, have varying amounts of yellow underneath. This one was flying on 3rd Feb 2007:



In flight she looked very white. I've toyed with the idea that this is a Berger's clouded yellow, but on 3rd Feb that would seem even more crazy than a clouded yellow (I saw a male clouded yellow on 14th January that year). Looking at it now, I still can't prove to myself it's a clouded yellow, not Berger's...

In Spain, a pale, buttery yellow Colias is most likely to be a male Berger's.

Guy

[Lee Hurrell]

Thanks again Guy. I don't think I'll ever be able to separate these species!

I'm pretty confident to record as Berger's then due to the pale yellow colour in flight and southern location. It was certainly noticably different to the helice in the photos above that one which was much whiter in flight.

Also, as you say, after reading up a bit Berger's reaches the Med where Pale Clouded does not.

Why would February be crazy for Berger's though? Surely if croceus would fly in late Jan, why not alfacariensis in Feb?

I take it your sightings were from Switzerland - I'd like to go there to some see some continental meadows one day.

Thanks again for your help!

Cheers

Lee

[Padfield]

I take it your sightings were from Switzerland - I'd like to go there to some see some continental meadows one day.

Let me know if you ever do come this way. As you say, the variety of butterflies to be found in a good alpine meadow is staggering. I recorded 64 species in the garden of my previous house (I kept the garden as a meadow, having it professionally scythed once a year but otherwise just leaving it).

Guy

[Lee Hurrell]

Certainly will, thanks Guy.

Crikey, now that is a garden tally

Cheers

Lee

[Matsukaze]

I'll be down in the far south of Spain (Tarifa area) the last week in February. Is anything likely to be on the wing then?

[Padfield]

Here's an extract from my year list for 2007, when I had a week's break in February and took a trip to nearby Gibraltar:

5 - Large white (Pieris brassicae) - 19th February - Gibraltar
6 - Spanish festoon (Zerynthia rumina) - 19th February - Gibraltar
7 - Speckled wood (Pararge aegeria) - 19th February - Gibraltar
8 - Cleopatra (Gonepteryx cleopatra) - 19th February - Gibraltar
9 - Wall (Lasiommata megera) - 19th February - Gibraltar
10 - Painted lady (Vanessa cardui) - 19th February - Gibraltar
11 - Geranium bronze (Cacyreus mrshalli) - 19th February - Gibraltar
12 - Small white (Artogeia rapae) - 21st February - Gibraltar
13 - Green-striped white (Euchloe belemia) - 21st February - Gibraltar
14 - Small copper (Lycaena phlaeas) - 21st February - Gibraltar
15 - Holly blue (Celastrina argiolus) - 21st February - Gibraltar
16 - Provence orange tip (Anthocharis euphenoides) - 21st February - Gibraltar
17 - Common blue (Polyommatus icarus) - 23rd February - Gibraltar
18 - Lang's short-tailed blue (Leptotes pirithous) - 23rd February - Gibraltar
19 - Western dappled white (Euchloe crameri) - 24th February - Malaga

I was a little disappointed not to get Provence hairstreak (Tomares ballus) which I have seen on the wing there at that time of year in the past.

You can add red admiral and clouded yellow to the list - I'd already seen them in Switzerland by then, as numbers 1 and 2 for the year. My commentary on the trip can be found here: http://www.guypadfield.com/butterflyyear2007.html

Guy