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I would be very grateful for any confirmation this is manto. It was taken in the Haute Savoie at 1700m elevation on Monday. Am I correct in that the tiny black centres on the hindwing red spot(s) excludes eriphyle. It was accompanied by several oeme. It had me excited for a while but manto would be OK
Any comments appreciated, well almost any!!!

Hi Paul. My first impression on seeing the picture was oeme, f. lugens. Then I saw you mention manto and I hesitated. What a pity there is no underside ...

I'm not sure what to conclude and will come back to it when I've got a little more time than this evening - but it might be worth noting the traces of white pupils in the forewing spots. That suggests oeme more than manto to me - but I haven't checked all manto for traces of a pupil.

Later,

Guy

PS - Are you still in the Haute Savoie? Do let me know if you pop into CH.

Thanks Guy, yes, there are white scales present, though hardly there at all, so oeme it is..... not seen that form before, so OK c'est la vie.

I am back in the UK now after a week of faultless weather but limited species success. I did consider getting in touch, but thought you might have better things to do than coax me up mountains I suspect the summer season at Samoens is just starting a week late for me. I have another chance in early August as I am fortunate enough to be going to Luchon in the Pyrenees, not sure what I will see there, maybe even a new species for me!!
I will put a posting on "Overseas" later.

I'm interested in the outcome as I had this down as manto, given that eriphyle could be precluded on distribution grounds:

http://www.butterfliesoffrance.com/html ... ie_19Jul09_

I thought the uph marks were indicative of manto, but they may not be exclusive to that species.

Roger