www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

With time getting on I decided to risk a 'short-cut' from Ordino to Canillo. It didn't quite work out that way as the road (CS-240) was probably the most steepest tortuous mountain road I've ever driven on (and I've had lots of practice in Tenerife) The poor hire car must've been gasping for air as much as we were gasping at the scenery, I rarely got it above third. Also, to add a touch more challenge into the proceedings, on every other tight bend I went around there was a Tour de France wannabee super-fit cyclist to contend with .
Eventually we got back on the CG-2 and as we neared the mountain pass to leave Andorra I pulled into the area I'd seen the Erebia and Bath White earlier in the day. While the ladies sat in the car being entertained yet again by my Doves CD, I shuffled down the scree slopes to check out the small brown butterflies visible from up top. Despite them not putting in much flight distance it was difficult to get close and even more difficult to get a decent picture. Even harder still was getting my near 17 stone bulk up the scree and back to the car (there's something to be said for taking up cycling ) Despite my initial assessment that these Erebias are Gavarnie Ringlets (E. Gorgone) I haven't discounted E. cassioides (Common Brassy Ringlet); E. meolans (Piedmont Ringlet) or even the possibility of there being two species. Any help with these will be much appreciated .
Edit. These were my initial assessments before Guy mentioned Erebia rondoui in part 6

Over the summit, slowing periodically to circumvent the mountain cattle that had wandered onto the roads , we made our way to the border control and encountered our first hold-up . Whilst waiting in the queue the driver from the car in front got out, opened his boot, re-arranged a few things then casually got back in. At the border control he was waved through as most of us were. He then went off like a scalded cat making overtaking manoeuvres even a stunt man would not have attempted . All that for some over the quota cheap booze and fags at El Pas de la Casa ....hmmmm .

The next morning was our departure day so it was all hands to the pumps to pack everything up and leave the caravan as we found it to get our (tidy sum) deposit back. The flight wasn't until 17:30 from Toulouse so this gave me enough time to do a spot of last minute butterflying in the meadow in La Bastide. However, first picture of the day was a moth: a Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet Xanthorhoe ferrugata which took a while to coax out of the caravan and onto a laurel leaf for its photo. This is quite a common species in the UK. Not quite so common (UK) was the Dewick's Plusia Macdunnoughia confusa taken in the meadow . Sandwiched between these two moths were Speckled Wood; Heath Fritillary and Meadow BrownThe female Meadow Brown sported a large underside eye-spot which was noticeable on all the females in this region. However as I hadn't been paying much attention to them, I almost overlooked the more extensive orange on the upper-side of both wings . This is form hispulla I think.
Next to be photographed were a couple of blues. Firstly a Short-tailed Everes argiades (female I think?) and then a nice female Long-tailed Lampides boeticus . Finally three more species with a tatty Green-veined White to round it off and very apt for it to be something I could find in the UK The Green-veined White took my species tally to 38 (barring mistakes of course):-
Large White
Small White (Southern Small White) (L)
Green-veined White
Clouded Yellow
Wood (Real's Wood) White (L)
Bath White
Swallowtail
Silver-washed Fritillary
Heath (False Heath; Provencal; Meadow) Fritillary (L x 3)
Glanville Fritillary
Weaver's or Violet Fritillary L
Peacock
Red Admiral
Map
Lesser Purple Emperor L
Meadow Brown
Marbled (Iberian Marbled) White (L)
Gatekeeper (Southern Gatekeeper) (L)
Small Heath
Pyrenees (Gavarnie; Common Brassy; Piedmont) Ringlet L
Speckled Wood
Great-banded Grayling L
Common Blue
Adonis Blue
Chalk-hill Blue (Provence Chalk-hill Blue) (L)
Provencal Short-tailed Blue L
Short-tailed Blue L
Lang's Short-tailed Blue L
Long-tailed Blue
Holly Blue
Brown Argus
Geranium Bronze
Small Copper
Sooty Copper L
Scarce Copper L
Large Skipper
Mallow Skipper L
Grizzled Skipper (malvaeoides) L

L is "lifer" with unconfirmed in brackets

3 unconfirmed sightings:- Moroccan Orange-tip; Scarce Swallowtail; Pale or Bergers Clouded Yellow.

Confirmed lifers = 12 (apologies Wurzel, more than I thought I had).
Unconfirmed very doubtful: Real's Wood White; Provencal Fritillary.
Possible but with doubts: ( False Heath Fritillary; Meadow Fritillary; Provence Chalk-hill Blue; Iberian Marbled White).
A better chance: Southern Small White; Southern Gatekeeper. A posting with the last two in question + the Melitaea sp. Of Frits to appear later.

The drive back took us past St. Lizier (lovely little town) to the 2 lane but fast A64 motorway all the way to Toulouse. Fiesta returned with a further 1400+ km notched up on the clock but below the 250km/day allowance, flight to Schiphol Amsterdam then to Heathrow, picked up my car, night time drive home, raining, and that sinking feeling knowing it was all over for at least another year . Where to next time I don't know but it will take a lot to beat the rural idyllic environment and the warm natural honesty of the people that typified southern France (even if the butterflies were mostly English ). Phil

NB
On the 4th of Oct in my garden in Woking I trapped a moth which (ironically) has a tenuous French connection more specifically a part of the name has. The moth:- Clifden Nonpareil, is also known as the more self explanatory Blue Underwing. The Nonpareil is French for "without equal" (Clifden = Cliveden House, Bucks where it was first found over here in 1749). This species is thought to be an occasional transitory resident which last became extinct around the middle of the 20th century and is only encountered in very small numbers as an immigrant from Scandinavia. This is my fourth year of moth trapping in my small ex council house back-garden and I've now had Death's Head Hawk-moth and Clifden Nonpareil, 2 of the most iconic moths you're ever likely to see (or not). Have I been blessed with good fortune or what NNB. I have since been informed by the Surrey County moth recorder that the Clifden Nonpareil is now thought to he in resident status again. Nothing stands still in nature. Best of luck to any of you who are moth recorders .

what a lovely surprise to catch a Clifden Nonpareil !

thanks for your detailed postings of your French holiday Phil

Hi Phil. Your first and last Erebia (last two pictures being the same butterfly) are brassy ringlets - either cassioides or rondoui. In the Pyrenees, cassioides (ssp. avernensis) is more like rondoui than in the Alps (in the Alps, the apical ocelli are more distinct) and I'm still hesitating with yours. On the whole, allowing for the fact they're rather worn, I go for rondoui. Where the apical ocelli are ambiguous, a useful distinction is that rondoui has a much clearer defined orange patch, especially on the inner border.

The other could very well be gorgone. It's a shame we can't see much of the upperside, but the underside hindwing shows hints of white venation, especially beneath the cell. I'm hesitating on this one too, but it's difficult to see what else it could be. I'll get back to you after you've had some more feedback.

Guy

Thoroughly enjoyed your France Trip Phil and the Clifden Nonpariel is a perfect end to the holiday - well done!!
Kind Regards
Mark

Nice reportage, Phil. I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

I particularly like your shot of Toulouse from the air. Brings back happy memories of my time spent there at university many years ago, especially the bars around the far side of Pont St. Pierre to the lower left of your image.

And another species added to the lifer list A cracking read over the last couple of weeks, great shots and I'm disappointed that it's all over...unless you have a few more shots/lifers to post

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks very much for your comments Charles; Mark and David . Glad you liked the story as well as the butterflies (and moths). I like the shot of the city from the air too, and it entered my mind lots of times of what it would be like to go there and look around rather than just drive from and to Blagnac airport

The story hasn't ended:- As you probably guessed I absolutely loved my time out in France but yesterday there was a sting in the tail. A speeding ticket arrived in the post (comprising of 3 parts all written in French ) 45Euros with 46 days to pay .
In Holiday to France part 2, I mentioned the flash approaching Mirepoix coming back from Carcassonne. It concerned me at the time but as we'd heard nothing for 2 weeks after getting home, we pretty much forgot all about it. So the fine turns up on the 4th of November after an offence committed on the 24th of August . The French police obviously have a wicked sense of humour . Don't want to make excuses but a deserted country road at 20:25 with the camera hidden in trees. If I'd been using my own car instead of a French registered hire car, I probably wouldn't have heard anything about it (but some would say serves you right, shouldn't be speeding ). Apparently a high proportion of speeding offences in France are committed by Brits during the holiday period:- probably because we are not used to having the freedom of an 'open road' . That 'loophole' is going to change sometime in 2017 when the French police will receive cross-border co-operation to enable them to pursue British motorists for payment of fines and where relevant endorse their licences .... so be warned

Padfield wrote:Hi Phil. Your first and last Erebia (last two pictures being the same butterfly) are brassy ringlets - either cassioides or rondoui. In the Pyrenees, cassioides (ssp. avernensis) is more like rondoui than in the Alps (in the Alps, the apical ocelli are more distinct) and I'm still hesitating with yours. On the whole, allowing for the fact they're rather worn, I go for rondoui. Where the apical ocelli are ambiguous, a useful distinction is that rondoui has a much clearer defined orange patch, especially on the inner border.

The other could very well be gorgone. It's a shame we can't see much of the upperside, but the underside hindwing shows hints of white venation, especially beneath the cell. I'm hesitating on this one too, but it's difficult to see what else it could be. I'll get back to you after you've had some more feedback.

Guy

Thanks Guy. This is a tricky one, not helped by the part shots of the butterflies. I'm glad in one respect and that is I may have come across two species flying together. My own assessments are (were) cassioides and gorgone but this is coming from a layman with a book. I've added two more pictures below which may help. One is of the dark ('male gorgone') and shows a trace of orange on the hindwing upperside. The other is a third butterfly (slightly off focus sadly) probably cassioides/rondoui but possibly female gorgone (with white venation?). The trouble is the lack of a third forewing ocellus suggests it's one of the brassy's instead of Gavarnie The forewing double occeli look slightly different too with the butterfly in pic one having the larger uppermost and the butterfly in pics 4 and 5 appearing to show the reverse (is this what you refer to as "apical ocelli are ambiguous"). The third butterfly eyespots appear to be like the first one, but if the eyespots are a red herring then the inner border orange patch may be the clue.

Is there any outside chance of it/them being another species we haven't considered?

Wurzel wrote:And another species added to the lifer list A cracking read over the last couple of weeks, great shots and I'm disappointed that it's all over...unless you have a few more shots/lifers to post

Hi Wurzel I posted my reply as yours was coming through (that's happened before as well ) The as yet unidentified/unconfirmed Gavarnie may take me to 13 which will equal your lifer total I think. The Erebia group are fascinating and perplexing as I'm sure you know Am really looking forward to your post ... c'monnnn!!

I've still got high hopes for one of my others in the identity parade to follow in a few days.