www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Here are a few more Pyrgus photos to ID. The first is from high (>2000 m) meadow between Rif. Elisabetta and Courmayeur. The underside picture is not much, but might help. This one was definitely larger than P. malvoides, but I hope it is not P. alveus. The second one is from low meadow just after La Fouly. This time I'm even more afraid of P. alveus... And the rest I presume to be P. malvoides, with P. semiargus thrown in.

Hi JKT,

The first one is cacaliae. This skipper is characterised by weak spots on the forewing, weak white on the hindwing, but above all by the absence of a white patch at the base of s2 on the underside hindwing.

I think the next one is most likely to be alveus, as you say, and the rest are malvae/malvoides.

I'd like to illustrate with my own pictures, but my webpage has gone off line - this is usually because I've forgotten to pay a bill. Must investigate...

Guy

Ah, my site is back. This is cacaliae, rather helpfully identifying itself:



It usually has a kind of 'dusting' all over the surface, giving it a characteristic appearance, but yours is a male (which has less of this) and rather worn.

This is an uns shot of a worn individual from last year:



Guy

Thanks Guy! P. cacaliae is a new find for me. I presume it is an early species based on condition at such high locality?

I normally see my first at the end of June and they fly right through to mid-August (or probably later - I just haven't been up later). I haven't seen one yet this year, though, for some reason.

Late snow and a cold winter meant the lowland species were late this year, but this seems to have had no effect on the upland species, which are always deep frozen until June. We have had a heat-wave since the last third of June and this seems to have accelerated things.

Guy

OK. Thanks for correcting my assumption! A sample of one is a bit small.