www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Hi all

I am lucky enough to have a week in Spain, near Malaga with nothing to do except explore and take photos. I will have use of a car.

Are there any sites nearby that anyone knows of and would recommend?

I am staying in the village of Los Romanes, north east of Malaga in the last week of May.

Thanks in advance,

Lee

Lee,
I was waiting to see if someone who knows more than me answered this, but as no one has here goes!
I have only visited the Malaga area in July and found it to be quite parched and butterflies were only in the higher mountains or in river valleys.
The two places I did find that were very good were Gibraltar and the Sierra Nevada. Both quite a drive from Malaga.
I was delighted to find so many species in the Sierra Nevada in July and would recommend going there to anyone. Late May will be quite different from July. I went to the main ski resort at Hoya de la Mora (I think that's how it is spelt!) and walked from there. In July there was still a little snow in the higher shady areas, but plenty of flowers and butterflies. I also stopped a couple of times on the road back down the mountains and found a couple of hot spots. I am sure that the lower sites will be good in May.
Have you seen this book http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/medioamb ... lr=lang_es I bought the book, but it is available as pdfs on this web site. It will give you an idea of what is flying in the Sierra Nevada in May.
Also I hear that Sierra de las Nieves is good for butterflies, but I haven't been there.
I am intending to go back to the Sierra Nevada in July when we will be on holiday in Malaga. Well worth the three hour drive.

Hi Nick,

Many thanks for your detailed reply. I was hoping that be being just before high summer it wouldn't be quite as parched as southern Spain can be.

Funnily enough I do want to visit both Gibraltar and the Sierra Nevada but was thinking they might be to far for a day trip. We'll see!

Thanks for the link too

Best wishes,

Lee

You might find this website informative, although the lay-out is a bit oldfashioned. It is the site of an Andalucian lepidopterist, Felipe Gil-T. - and gathers all his published papers, lot of them - not all - are about Andalucian butterflies.
http://gil-t.comze.com/publications.htm

And for the period you want to go, I would suggest some Lycaenids to focus on.
- Plebejus hespericus is an Iberian endemic, most of the populations can be found in the centre of Spain, in the mountains from the Madrid region to Teruel. A few populations however still exist in Andalucia. From one location I once accidently found a pdf, search for larval foodplants on this location: http://iesaricel.org/w/images/9/97/Info ... Elvira.pdf
- Another taxon I would suggest you can search for is Iolana iolas, the Spanish/North African populations of this species are sometimes considered as a different species than the populations in the rest of Europe, Iolana (iolas) debilis. There are some vague locations in this paper: http://www.sea-entomologia.org/PDF/Bole ... 17-085.pdf
The trick will be to find the larval foodplants Colutea arborea, once you have found these you can be really on the lookout for this species.
- Tarucus theophrastus should be easily found at Cabo de Gata, searching for larval foodplants.
- There are 2 taxa of Cupido of interest that can be found flying in that period in Andalucia; Cupido lorquinii and Cupido minimus carswelli. The first one should not be a big problem to find, for the other one you should have some more information

Hi Pieter

Many thanks for the information and links - very interesting.

I'm excited about what I may find!

Best wishes,

Lee