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Yesterday was good. These shots of different individuals were taken at approx. 2500m in the Stelvio region of Italy. I assumed and I'm sure they are tyndarus, but you know how it is, the books have made me consider nivalis I have never seen it, but the bluish hindwings of the fresh one were remarkable, and I found myself trying to photoshop the vividness down, without any success. Tolman/ Lewington does emphasize this for nivalis... Anyway, I would once again be grateful for anyone's opinion......

Just in case anyone was wondering, I have it on authority they were tyndarus

Wonderful shots of an amazingly coloured butterfly - thanks for posting .

Tony M.

Morning Paul. I think I'm the 'authority' you cite ...

I'm not really an authority, but I have found nivalis. Two upperside features useful in the diagnosis are: the apical spots just touch; two orange fingers reach towards the cell from the apical spots.



The underside hindwing of the male is rather bright silvery blue-grey:



However, tyndarus is very variable and can come close to nivalis in all these respects.

Guy

Thanks Tony, it truly was highly coloured, especially on close photo inspection, superb diffractions.

Guy, indeed, you are THE authority for most people on UKB ( I'm sure most would agree), along with Roger G and a couple of other less frequent commentators. I am extremely thankful that you qualify your advice with evidence, because most of us are really very junior, but still want to learn. I also feel sometimes the books give distinguishing features but do not necessarily give the most similar species to compare with, and these are not always next to each other in the text.

Thanks as always..... now what about my identity parade - there's another 3 species to unravel... please say, even if they are all cacaliae

Thank you for the company on 13th July. I did find morpheus the next day, within 100m of our accommodation - I will post in due course