www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I've just spent a few weeks in Central France (Indre) - quite a few butterflies around, despite mixed weather, with about 35 species spotted in the "garden" of the house (orchard, bordering on a meadow and woodland).

All the usual suspects, both swallowtails, plus a few I'm not sure about. IDs from experts welcomed! The order is not as below..

(i) Is this a A. agestis cramera (if so, I thought it was Spain and Portugal only?).

(ii) Second is a very large blue, Gatekeeper sized. Female only, unfortunately....(arion??).

(iii) Third is a bit of a mystery; I saw a few of these around, some looked almost like Common Blues, others didn't quite - flight very different, unless French examples fly differently!

Many thanks if you can help,

Chris

Hi Chris. The middle butterfly is a male sooty copper. The top one is Aricia sp. - probably agestis. The situation with Aricia is very confusing. So far as I know (sitting at school), cramera is not found in central France. Your lowest picture does look like cramera but this is not sufficient in itself to determine the species as 'looks' are secondary characters and the same broad, bright orange markings can in principle occur in agestis.

There is a lot of ongoing research into this group and I'm sure there will be many surprises as biochemical techniques for determining phylogeny very often reveal affinities and divergences that are completely indiscernible through morphological techniques alone.

Guy

EDIT: A useful thing to note is that coppers have three spots in the underside forewing cell, whereas blues have one or two. Knowing that you could have eliminated all blues from your enquiries for that middle photo!

That third ?agestis is an absolute beauty!!

Many thanks Guy; the "skipper rule" is new to me, and very helpful. I didn't spot it as a Sooty Copper as all the ones I've seen (Normandy/Mayenne) have been half the size and quite strongly tinted underneath, rather than grey.
Chris

Guy, how about this one which I didn't put in above? Flying in a forest, close to a river (Indre).

Chris

Alcetas. Obviously, I can't be sure without seeing the underside but I am sure really.

Guy

Very many thanks. This is another shot (next in sequence) with some underside.

This would be well outside the normal range of alcetas??

Chris

The latest maps (Kudrna, 2011) show a recent expansion in range (or awareness of range) in western France, reaching as far north as Le Mans. Your sighting seems to be just within the known range, comparing Google Maps with Kudrna. But if you send in records to someone this is probably worth adding, to confirm its presence.

Guy

My records are UK only (via Butterfly Conservation); does anyone know of an equivalent fro France, eg a central recording scheme?

Chris