www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Hi all,

Sorry I was wondering if someone could ID these few (15 ) butterflies from Switzerland. Mots taken around Thusis area, some up as high as 2300m. I so regrettably never bought a field guide before going, I never realised there were so many butterflies up the mountains!! I saw so many more that I never took photos of, but didn't note enough detail for positive ID So if there's a chance that these ones at least could be ID'd to species I'd really appreciate it. Also could someone recommend a good book that covers butterflies of Europe, I see there's several out there but I don't know which is best. Thanks!
Thanks again!

Nige

Hi Nige. Your butterflies are, in the order you post them:

Long-tailed blue (Lampides boeticus)
Marbled white (Melanargia galathea)
Northern brown argus (Aricia artaxerxes)
Northern brown argus (Aricia artaxerxes) again, assuming it is the same butterfly
Lesser marbled fritillary (Brenthis ino)
(probably) Blind ringlet (Erebia pharte)
Arran brown (Erebia ligea)
Glandon blue (Plebejus [Agriades] glandon)
Provisional pass on the Pyrgus - I'd like more information about altitude and size!
Yellow banded moth (Psodos quadrifaria)
Little fritillary (Melitaea [Mellicta] asteria)
Little fritillary (Melitaea [Mellicta] asteria)
Comma (Polygonia c-album)
Common blue (Polyommatus icarus)
Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni)
White admiral (Limenitis camilla)
Large wall (Lasiommata maera)

I'm particularly interested in the little fritillary as this is a life-tick I was wondering about trying to get this year! The Engadine is a long way from where I live, though...

Guy

Hi Guy,

Thank you very much!! I wish I'd taken more photos I will try and get more info about the 'provisionals' for you soon.


I had a look at your site the other day, very useful indeed. Excellent detail and info so well done on that Will be referring back to it again if I ever go back to mainland Europe.

Nige

I'm guessing from your username you don't have an iPhone, otherwise I'd recommend the app: http://www.guypadfield.com/lepidapp/lepidapp.html.

Even though it's out of date in shamefully many ways, and incorporated brand new errors into the latest edition, the Collins Butterfly Guide is the essential book for the European species. You will find other books linked here: http://www.guypadfield.com/books/books.html. For a complete beginner, the Lafranchis photo guide is probably the best (and if you speak French, the French version, not linked from my page, is even better and comes with a supplementary CD ROM with loads more photos - see here: http://www.amazon.fr/Papillons-dEurope- ... 2952162018). The Haahtela et al. photo guide is also good for beginners and contains more information, but is not organised as a key.

Guy

The HTC in my name is actually from the church I go to, Hayes Town Chapel

I don't have an iPhone either unfortunately, but will look into those books you recommended, I will probably end up getting both



With regards to the Pyrgus, it was taken up a mountain called Piz Scalottas. The mountain itself reaches 2300m and the photo was I think at the top, or on one of the slopes overlooking Lenzerheide, which I believe is about 1500m above sea level. Hope that helps!?!

The Little Fritillary was also in this area.

Nige

Thanks. For the skipper, I find it a little difficult to say. If you are new to butterflies - or rather, European butterflies - you might not know that the genus Pyrgus poses quite a lot of identification difficulties because of the similarity of the species and the huge variation within the species. Usually, an upperside and an underside are both needed for confident identification and even then there are often individuals which elude one. My best bet here is olive skipper, Pyrgus serratulae. The discrete, rather small spots on the forewing, the shape of the cell spot and the largely unmarked hindwing all point to this. It is a reasonably common and extremely variable butterfly in Switzerland, being found from valley level to the mountain tops. The underside is most constant and provides the strongest determination features; so as you only show an upperside I won't pretend anything close to 100% on this one. The hindwings have a little of the feel of safflower skipper about them (Pyrgus carthami) but this species is usually much more strongly marked and I think the appearance might be accidental. Roger Gibbons has done an extensive study of Pyrgus in museum collections and might have more to say. Well - others might have more to say too!

Guy

Kool thanks for your help on that

I'm completely new to butterflies in general really, am slowly getting used to our UK ones, seems an easier task than Swiss

Nige

The Pyrgus doesn’t seem to fit any species exactly so anything is a guess. It isn’t carlinae because the forewing cell spot is just not sufficiently c-shaped. The hindwing submarginal marks look out of place here in that that they don’t seem to belong with the rest of the markings. This series would tend to suggest carthami but the marks don’t seem quite elongated enough and the forewing markings are not right, so we can eliminate carthami.

Guy thinks serratulae despite the heavier markings; this species usually has a very lightly marked upf but in some localities the upf markings can be much stronger (although I rarely see them like this). I wonder about alveus despite the hindwing marks and upf cell spot being a little heavy. However, if the alveus form centralhispaniae – which is much more heavily marked than the nominate form of alveus - flies at that location, it would tip the balance away from alveus.

An interesting collection of shots in that nearly all are common species plus…. Little Fritillary (M. asteria) – and a female?? – a rare and localised species. It is a very small butterfly (it doesn’t occur in France and I have never seen it, I may add) and this would have been apparent in the field. A friend of mine just drove several hundred miles and spent several days looking for this without success. This seems to have been a theme this year by several people – trips looking for specific rare species failed dismally whereas trips made by less experienced people (not looking for anything in particular) turned up the rare species. This is half the fun of butterflies in Europe, the sometimes completely random element.

Roger Gibbons wrote:An interesting collection of shots in that nearly all are common species plus…. Little Fritillary (M. asteria) – and a female?? – a rare and localised species. It is a very small butterfly (it doesn’t occur in France and I have never seen it, I may add) and this would have been apparent in the field. A friend of mine just drove several hundred miles and spent several days looking for this without success. This seems to have been a theme this year by several people – trips looking for specific rare species failed dismally whereas trips made by less experienced people (not looking for anything in particular) turned up the rare species. This is half the fun of butterflies in Europe, the sometimes completely random element.

It's the same in all areas I guess, just at the right place at the right time. As I mentioned I saw hundreds of butterflies, most of which never stopped to be photographed, so who knows what else I missed!


Thank you for your input on the Pyrgus, it'll have to remain an unknown I guess

Nige