France/Spain 2014

[LancsRover]

Hi All, I'm on the road again, thru France to Spain for a few weeks.
1st stop a campsite near Dreux
Evening stroll down the side of the stream produced beautiful demoiselles or banded? and a couple of battered Speckled Woods.
Cheers Russ

[Charles Nicol]

Lovely specimens Russ !!

You should see plenty more butterflies as you go South

Charles

[David M]

I'm looking forward to reading your reportage, Russ.

[essexbuzzard]

Me too,no doubt with just a tinge of jealousy.

[FISHiEE]

Looking forward to the live report! That's a male banded demoiselle. The beautiful demoiselle has totally blue wings with no clear bits. The females of both are more tricky to separate though!

[LancsRover]

Hi Charles, thanks for comments, I followed your Aude report, and I might get down there on my way to Spain.

Cheers David.

Hi Mark, thanks for comments; called in at Temple Ewell for an hour on the way to Dover, a little o/cast so the silver- spotted were down in the grass but i did managed a few half decent pics, also Adonis.

Hi Fishiee, I might need your help with the following report, thanks for input.

Cheers Russ.

[LancsRover]

TUESDAY 2/9/14.
Second campsite(drove 200+ miles) just south of LIMOGES, next to a small lake, again evening stroll(6.30pm), turned up more demoiselles(females & males) and a very large dragonfly. It looked longer & slimmer than a male Broad-bodied chaser, could be a Black-tailed Skimmer(?)
Again only 2 or 3 speckled woods(yellow type).

Cheers Russ

[LancsRover]

Wednesday, 3/9/14. Sunny & hot.
Short stop for lunch in Souillac(Dordogne) in the motorhome car park, at first I was a little disappointed because
they had made the car park larger and the scrub smaller and there was little flying apart from a few whites.
I had almost given up hope when I saw a rather large b/f diving around in the new part of car park, then another, I wasn't sure what they were until I saw a faint glimpse of purple and I thought Lesser Purple Emperor?(never seen before)
Checked my book later and I think I'm right? Pics not great but they didn't do much posing for me.
A Cleopatra put in an appearance a little later too but still not as good as last year, but quality rather than quantity.

Cheers Russ

[Charles Nicol]

Well done with the LPEs Russ !! They are very pretty creatures.

[Chris Jackson]

Looks like LPE to me Russ.
Off to a flying start then !
Chris

[Johncob]

Your up and running Russ.

[David M]

Nice double to start off with, Russ.

[LancsRover]

Thanks for your comments boys.

I have spent the last 3 days at Chateau de Lacomte, in the LOT. This is a 32 acre campsite, with fields and mixed forest, it is almost empty at this time of year, great for wildlife in general but great for butterflies & birds especially.
There are so many b/f's on the site and surrounding area, that I am going to split them into groups eg; frits, grayling,etc.
First I have a frit. that I need help with, I think it is a female Spotted Fritillary, it has too many
markings for a male on the hind wings but there does not seem to be the double row of black edging for the female on the same?
It looks like it could be ovipositing on the closed wing shots?

Waiting confirmation from the frit. experts please.

Cheers Russ

[John Vergo]

As fare as I can see, this is the female of M.didyma ( Spotted Fritillary)

[Padfield]

As John says, this is indeed a female spotted fritillary. This is a supremely variable butterfly, both in colour and pattern!

It does look as though she is ovipositing. Spotted fritillaries use a wide variety of foodplants. I'm not sure what yours is laying on - could it be a speedwell species (Veronica)?

Guy

[Chris Jackson]

The Two-tail Pasha is flying down here in the South so keep your eyes peeled Russ.
You may also see some Striped Grayling and Tree Grayling in dry areas (don't bother looking in trees though ).
Chris

[LancsRover]

Hi Chris, nice to speak again.
I'm very much interested in "getting" some pics of the T/T Pasha,
I missed it last year in Spain, I only have a long range shot of one on the citadel at St-Tropez and that had a large section out of it's wing and an almost dead one in San Remo(October end of natural life)

So it is my no.1 target for this trip.

I thought I saw one in deep scrub under a buddleia tree at Rocamadour the other day, it was wriggling about going deeper and deeper into thick grass, I didn't want to kill it by mistake, so I left it alone and waited but it didn't come out, the time was about 4.30pm, is this normal behaviour?

Cheers Russ

[LancsRover]

Thanks to John and Guy for poss. ID.

MORE FRITS FROM CARLUCET,LOT.

Heath or Meadow, (please see below), I think Heath but what do I know?

2 different male Spotted? if so they is quite a variant, as you said GUY.

Last but not least a Silver-washed,never still, stayed on the edge of the woods and would shoot back into them when approached, this one was very pale.

Cheers Russ

[Charles Nicol]

Lovely fritillary pics Russ !

I hope you succeed in your quest for the Pasha. There were plenty around when i left Aude last week. Just look for those Arbutus bushes

Charles

[Padfield]

Hi Russ. Your second spot frit is a female - but quite different from the previous females you illustrated!

As for the female Melitaea fritillaries, my instinct is parthenoides (meadow). It really is just instinct. The submarginal lunule in s.3 is rather large for meadow, but this feature in particular is very variable and other details of the markings are more characteristic of meadow. But above all, they just look like meadow fritillaries - not very helpful, I know, and possibly wrong! I'm still waiting for one of the several 'in preparation' guides to this group to come out. I'm tempted by the one which is out - http://www.nhbs.com/the_genus_melitaea_ ... 98122.html - but it's out of my price range for the moment.

Guy