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On with the next part of my South of France holiday. From now on my identifications may start to wobble slightly, but I'm eager to learn and happy for any errors to be pointed out.

We took a trip north from Monaco to the fringes of the Parc Du Mecantour. Our destination was Sospel and a walk that took us above the village to approx 750m. Once again it was very hot and Butterflies were very reluctant to settle for long. However we found a nice alpine meadow for lunch and my luck changed for the better.

First off was this Dingy Skipper The first blue to put in appearance was a Lang's Short Tailed We encountered Spotted Fritillary (no photos at this location) and also a single Weavers A single Great Banded Grayling puts in an appearance Moving on to Hesperiidae I'm going for alveus - Large Grizzled with the first one And armoricanus - Oberthur's, for the second. I managed to net an example of this to get underside too. There were a number of browns, of which Meadow Brown & Southern Gatekeeper were positively identified. But this next example has me thinking possibly Dusky Meadow Brown due to a lighter appearance. Finally back to Lycaenidae. I must admit that these caused me some angst and I struggled to be positive, depsite netting a couple for closer examination.

I believe the first is icarus, but the final three I'm looking for help please. My next installment will take me deeper into the Parc Du Mecantour.

Kind Regards and thanks in advance for any help

Kev

A quick look suggests your Dusky Meadow Browns are Small Heaths.

I suspect that your first Pyrgus is a worn armoricanus. Hard to say even with fresh Pyrgus, but hard becomes almost impossible with ageing. The forewing markings look too heavy for alveus and if you were at lowish altitudes, this also points away from alveus.

Roger

Hi Kev,
I'm wondering whether your 3rd blue could be female hispanus ?
Chris