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French ID's Part 8

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 10:19 pm
by Lee Hurrell
Next batch. All butterflies at several locations up one mountain side between 800m and 1500m.

Some prickly Pyrgus to start....
Individual 1
Individual 1
Individual 1
Individual 1
Individual 2
Individual 2
Individual 2
Individual 2
Individual 3
Individual 3
Individual 3
Individual 3
Female Purple Shot Copper?
IMG_2307.jpg
Female Sooty Copper? Quite different to the ones I saw last year!
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This blue had almost the hue of Adonis, but I don't think it is?
IMG_2420.jpg
IMG_2424.jpg
While these could be Brown Argus?
Individual 1
Individual 1
Individual 1
Individual 1
Individual 2
Individual 2
Individual 2
Individual 2
I'm fairly sure this is Small Blue?
IMG_2515.jpg
IMG_2517.jpg
These I think could be Meadow Fritillary....
Individual 1
Individual 1
Individual 1
Individual 1
Individual 2
Individual 2
While these I think are all Heath.
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I think these are 2 different individuals to the previous 2
I think these are 2 different individuals to the previous 2
IMG_2446.jpg
IMG_2461.jpg
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Many thanks,

Lee

Re: French ID's Part 8

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 11:26 am
by David M
I'd agree your Coppers are Purple Shot and Sooty. Could your Brown Argus be Mountain Argus? The orange bands seem much reduced.

Re: French ID's Part 8

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 7:58 pm
by Reverdin
Your female sooty coppers look like Purple edged to me :?

Re: French ID's Part 8

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 10:52 pm
by Paul Wetton
Hi Lee

I'm no expert but I'll have a crack.

Skipper 1. has quite a lot of pale on the ups similar to Safflower Skipper but the uns are wrong for this species. Could it be Cinquefoil Skipper?

Skipper 2. I think is Red Underwing Skipper.

Skipper 3. Looks like Carline Skipper with that shiny upperwing surface and the slight C mark.

Purple-shot yes but I'd go with Purple-edged for the next one. It looks similar to some we saw in Switzerland.

That Blue has a cell spot I think, so I'd go with Common Blue although it is pretty bright.

Probably Northern Brown Argus as there is less orange on the forewing and the ground colour is quite dark.

I agree with Small Blue as the spots on the uns curve round quite a bit.

I'm normally pretty useless with these Fritillaries but I'd say that individual 3. could be Meadow Fritillary as it has that oblique black mark in S1 in the discal region. All the others look like Heath Fritillary.

Please bear in mind I'm quite a novice when it comes to foreign jobs so I'd wait for someone else to confirm these.

Re: French ID's Part 8

Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 8:06 am
by Padfield
I agree with Paul on most of these. I think the first skipper is safflower, though. And for the third, I'd go for alveus.

Female purple-edged and sooty coppers are both very variable but always easy to separate. The pd row of spots in sooty is staggered, while that in purple-edged is regular. Sooty copper also has more crowded uns, with a group of four spots in the middle (usually), not three. There are other differences, but those stand out.

Fritillary 2 is meadow - the others are all heath so far as I can see.

Guy

Re: French ID's Part 8

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:54 pm
by Lee Hurrell
Thank you all so much - there are a few surprises in there!

Believe it or not, I am beginning to get the hang of some of these...

Best wishes,

Lee