www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

While the main bunch was enjoying a guided tour of the hotspots, I was humping the hills with an oversized backpack. (I started the trip on 26th from Les Houches and ended in the same place 11 days later. Even though my route was somewhat given and there really wasn't that much time was butterflying, I was still quite happy with the number of butterflies and species. AND I know I saw a plenty more species than I was able to name. The area really is a butterfly heaven!

Despite the limited time, I was still able to get some pictures and naturally I need help in identifying them.

The first one I presume to be Pseudophilotes baton. This is probably just one more Pyrgus malvoides. And then it gets interesting ... any chance of saying which one this is? And finally a little ringlet. I could list about 6 similar species, but I wouldn't get much further than that. This was above Chamonix at about 1600 m on alpine meadow. There will be more ... eventually.

Hi JKT,

Your fritillary looks like a Marbled Fritillary Brenthis daphne.

Cheers

Lee

Hi JKT! We had no idea you were in the area!

Your first two IDs are correct. Somewhere I've got a map of the distributions of malvae and malvoides in Switzerland, but that might not help if you were in France at the time. Yours certainly looks like malvoides, from what little understanding I am beginning to have of these two.

The ringlet is most likely to be E. manto. This has a whole range of quite different forms, usually darker at high altitudes (and, of course, all black in the Pyrenees). The distribution of orange matches dark forms of manto and the smooth, unmarked underside hindwing is classic in the dark forms (of the male). I have to say, butterflies like yours fly normally at 2000m rather than 1600m in Switzerland, but the general appearance gives me some confidence this is what it is.

The Boloria is more difficult! I think I'm lazy on this, because I have the luxury of visiting sites when the females are flying. On the whole, I think yours is B. pales palustris. I'll perhaps give it some more thought later, because I've just noticed I've missed five minutes of University Challenge!!

Guy

Not Marbled then

Lee

A worthy victory for Oxford Brookes.

I still think the Boloria is pales palustris. All the little details fit, except I can't see the size, obviously (pales is smaller than napaea).

Not marbled, Lee, but it was a brave stab!! In this case, the only question (as I think JKT knew) was whether it was pales palustris (shepherd's fritillary, south western alpine form) or napaea (mountain fritillary).

Guy

Thank Guy!

The Pyrgus was indeed from France. I can't remember the exact location, but it was somewhere between Col de Voza and Col de Tricot.

The Erebia was here: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8& ... 14538&z=17.
I was guessing the height based on it felt lower than Le Flegere. Now it seems it may be closer to 1850 m. It could have come from even higher up, but I saw three of those on that meadow and nowhere else. I think it was just starting and local on that meadow.

The Boloria was the same size as the B. napae I have seen - but that one was in Lappland. The size there may be completely different. At least the B. euphrosyne, A. urticae and C. rubi were huge compared to what I'm used to.

Thanks for trying Lee, but Guy was right about the question. The size of B. daphne is somewhat larger. (I saw a couple near Les Houches...)

The Blue was from the blue heaven - the walk between La Peula and Ferret. Even though most of the numbers were made up by C. minimus, there was more than enough others to make it very interesting ... and frustrating.

I need to get back there with MUCH better time.

JKT wrote:
...The Blue was from the blue heaven - the walk between La Peula and Ferret. Even though most of the numbers were made up by C. minimus, there was more than enough others to make it very interesting ... and frustrating.

Hi
I know what you mean; Guy took us to a similar site where c. minimus was everywhere in profusion (Guy has some shots of them roosting in numbers) amongst which, like you, were others that were worthy of more study. Paul is getting very good on many of these exotic Blues; Guy however takes his knowledge to another level, leaving a mere amateur like myself floundering with their subtleties. And yes, there were very frustrating..... but facinating
N
I think a month wouldn't be enough - but it would be nice!

padfield wrote:A worthy victory for Oxford Brookes.

Guy

i think that the final question was very unfair... which team is more likely to know about the Oxford Inklings...Oxford Brookes or Cardiff, which is not even in the same country ?

Charles

PS i shouted out "Inkspots"...

I wouldn't mind seeing a profusion of minimus round here.

Here's a typical bit of grass verge as the afternoon drew on, last Thursday:

http://www.guypadfield.com/images2010/m ... oup101.jpg

(I've put the URL, rather than embedded the image, because it needs to be seen all across the screen)

It was like that all along, not just in one or two places!!

Guy

Excellent! One of my favourite butterflies.

I noticed when in Provence that the butterfly was widespread and often in locations where there was no kidney vetch immediately obvious nearby. In the UK I have never seen the insect out of sight of its foodplant. Does it use a wider range of foodplants in central and southern Europe, or is it just more mobile there?

In Switzerland, kidney vetch is by far the commonest host plant, and there was plenty around at the site where those in the picture above were roosting. However, in Valais the species is also known to use Astragalus cicer and Astragalus penduliflorus, both at altitude, presumably. Lafranchis notes that in France it also takes Onobrychis supina, Coronilla juncea and Colutea arborescens, this last in Provence. I don't actually know how Colutea arborescens (bladder senna) survives, as pretty well all blues seem to love it, from Iolas, through long-tailed, through holly and green-underside to little blue. A great thing to put in your garden if you live down south!!

Guy

Funnily enough I have just taken delivery of some Coronilla juncea and Colutea arborescens seeds (amongst others), more in the hope of attracting bumblebees than breeding butterflies.