French butterfly IDs

[Matsukaze]

A fair few butterflies for ID, mostly fritillaries and blues, from a recent holiday in France.

Between Reims and Epernay there are some impressive-looking hilly, chalky woodlands. In a grassy verge with woodland and bare chalk nearby I found these two butterflies, both of which puzzle me.

1) My first thought was agestis, but it appeared to be too large and the pattern of the unh dots looks to be wrong. If it is female icarus, then the underside is very pale, I do not recall seeing any traces of blue on the upperwings (of which I do not have a photo) and I definitely did not think it was this species at the time. I have next to no experience of argus and none of idas, argyrognomon etc, but suspect the butterfly might be something in this group.

2) On the same site was this fritillary - clearly Boloria, but which species? It appears most like selene to me, but was much more fluttery and restless than the few examples of that species I have come across in Somerset, and selene is not typically associated with chalky ground. It looked too small for euphrosyne, and the markings look wrong for dia.

[Matsukaze]

Small fritillaries were to cause me great trouble the whole time. They proved remarkably prevalent at motorway service stations, which is where I found these two (not far from Lyon). I suspect they are the same species but have no idea which one! I think they are Mellicta and more likely to be parthenoides/aurelia than athalia.

3)

4)

[Matsukaze]

Whilst travelling south from Grenoble across the Col de la Croix Haute, we stopped off a couple of times, where we saw these blues:

5) was Lysandra-sized, but clearly is not one. On viewing the photo again I find it hard to get away from icarus, but at the time the blue appeared to be the wrong shade.

6) was gathering salts from mud around our car. It was too big, and with too light a shade of blue, for minimus, and the underwings too silvery for argiolus. I have no experience of osiris but suspect this may have been what it was.

7), on the same site. Again on reviewing it I am having trouble getting away from icarus, but at the time it appeared paler and larger than I would expect. However I cannot come up with a convincing alternative!

[Padfield]

I'm pretty confident the first butterfly is agestis, as you thought. The spots do not always line up in a vertical colon but may be very oblique, as here. I photographed a rather similar agestis earlier this year near Geneva:



The first fritillary is violet fritillary - Boloria dia.

As for the second fritillary, my gut feeling is athalia. The markings are right, the brand under the forewing is there, and to be honest I don't see what else it could be. It's not parthenoides, deione or aurelia - nor diamina.

Guy

[Padfield]

Your icarus are surely that. This is another very variable butterfly. The cell spot rules out all but Lysandra species and eros and these are not these.

The Cupido is good for osiris. I can't put my finger on exactly what tells me that, except that I see loads of osiris every year and have picked up a feel for them. I think the colour is probably part of it - more of a Daz bluey whiteness than in minimus - but shades can be deceptive in photos.

Guy

EDIT: Here's an osiris showing what I mean by 'bluey white':

[Matsukaze]

Thanks Guy!

More to follow another day soon...

[Matsukaze]

Further south, around the Lac de Saint-Croix (Var/Alpes de Haute Provence border).

Evidence that while all blues are beautiful, some blues are more beautiful than others. Both bellargus and hispana were on the wing at the time in this area.

9) At the time I thought this might be aurinia, now I am not so sure. Female Melitaea didyma?

[Matsukaze]

10) Mellicta sp., but which one?

11) The only Pyrgus that I managed to photograph on the whole holiday. This one made life difficult, too: it was by the lake shore and was quite happy to flutter out among the sallows growing out of the lake shallows, where I could not follow it. Fortunately it was also interested in some kind of Potentilla growing amidst the sallow scrub just beyond the shoreline.

[Padfield]

That last fritillary (9 - you posted another before I could get that reply in!) is phoebe. The underside identifies it as Melitaea, in the old money, rather than Mellicta and various features, including the enlarged s3 lunule on the forewing, indicate phoebe.

The few female hispanus (as it now is, since Lysandra was subsumed into Polyommatus) I have seen have been much darker than your female blue, especially on the underside, and I think yours is bellargus.

Guy

[Padfield]

10 looks like athalia to me. 11 seems compatible with a rather knackered malvoides. Was it small? The fact it was interested in Potentilla supports the ID.

Apologies for brevity - I'm replying from bed on my iPad! We're an hour later here.

Guy

[Matsukaze]

Thanks Guy - the Pyrgus was smaller than, or at best the same size as, the malvae we get here in Somerset.

[Roger Gibbons]

I agree #10 is highly likely athalia – the shading around the s2 forewing marginal lunule is indicative, and the Pyrgus is malvoides (almost 100% certain on this one).

The female blue is bellargus, of the form ceronus (or maybe semi-ceronus) which is fairly common in Haut Var and the Verdon gorge area. Some female blues are quite stunning and compete with their male counterparts on equal terms, and this is one of them.

[Matsukaze]

12( I think this has to be iolas - these were big blues flying powerfully and high up (by blue standards) around the foodplant - but would be happy with the confirmation.

13) At the time I thought this next one was osiris; the size fits, but the combination of the blue on the upperwing and the apparent ovipositing does not compute (although I suspect the foodplant is appropriate for that species).

14) Again I think I know what this one is - euphrosyne - but I so rarely see it at home.

15) The only photo I got of this butterfly, and a species I have never seen before or since - arcania?

[Padfield]

I think all your IDs are correct - and well done on iolas!

Female osiris is occasionally very blue. Here is one photographed in Switzerland in 2005:



That is the exception rather than the rule but this pattern, when present, is distinctively osiris.

Guy

[Matsukaze]

16) Boloria dia?

17) I have this down to ilicis or esculi, but cannot determine which. It showed bold orange patches on the upperwings in flight.

18) Mellicta athalia? I suffered from the lack of an articulated screen on the new camera...

19) Another athalia?

[Matsukaze]

Thanks Guy. How rare is iolas? I had little difficulty finding it - but then I happened across a fair patch of the foodplant, watched and waited. It did seem to me that it was restricted by the scarcity of the foodplant in the landscape. That was one of only two locations I came across with more than two or three individual shrubs, and both harboured the butterfly.

[Padfield]

Iolas is thinly spread. It doesn't form colonies in the usual way, even though some localities can be reliable sites and they breed there every year. Rather, it occupies larger regions and both males and females may fly some distance to find mates/foodplant. Males are very strongly attracted to the foodplant and nectar on it preferentially, though not exclusively. On the whole, this is a rare species but the south of France is its stronghold.

Your other IDs seem correct to me. The hairstreak appears to be ilex (ilicis). In the field, the colour of the orange spots is a giveaway (a distinct reddish touch in esculi) but I don't like to rely on shade in photographs. The shape and size of the spots (diminishing in size as you go up the wing), the extent of the marginal white line and the dark ground colour all suggest ilicis. The shape of the hairstreak itself is very different from that of Swiss ilicis but this is a variable feature across the range.

I couldn't call the last one. It has a ring of deione about it but I can't see enough to eliminate athalia. Roger knows the area and its particular forms much better than I do.

Guy

[Matsukaze]

I was very happy to see the iolas - it was one of the few species I was really looking for, and it did not disappoint. As you have said before it has a certain way about it, a purpose to its flight, which reminded me more of some of the whites than any blues I have come across before. On the whole in southern Europe I am happy just to be surrounded by lots of butterflies and enjoy their company, rather than taking trouble to look for rare things, but this one was definitely worth taking a bit of trouble over.

[Roger Gibbons]

I would agree athalia, arcania and ilicis. The differences between ilicis and esculi are outlined on my esculi page.

Iolas is a major discovery in this region and you did remarkably well to find it. It is nearly extinct in Var and I have searched for it for many years and only saw it for the first time in 2011. Was it at any of the sites I suggested you visit? Either way, I would be interested to know where you saw it – in the strictest confidence (by pm). The reason I ask is that the site(s) may need protection. One local site in northern Var was destroyed this year when all the Colutea was cut down in the cause of producing firebreaks. I think it only occurs in one site in Var although the Alpes de Haute Provence is a greater stronghold.

[David M]

I'm just looking at your very first photograph, for which you suggest agestis but then say that it was too large.

Could this not be a female Turquoise Blue?

I say that only because I saw one for the first time myself last week and the underwing pattern of your butterfly seems similar (though mine is a male and is less heavily marked):