My opinion is that cirsii is not a subspecies of carlinae, as evidenced by publications by Lafranchis and the PACA Atlas to name but a few Interesting. Let me note that of the cited references, neither is a scientific publication, and neither provides any evidence or justification for their opinion...

Hi Bob, The books are not to blame for the confusion with the names - they just reflect the state of knowledge at the time. Zoological systematics evolves as our knowledge evolves, and lots of seemingly similar populations have recently been proven to actually belong to separate species. When this h...

I would say the first and third ones are Melitaea ornata (Eastern Knapweed). I pass on the second one - it is either Knapweed (M. phoebe) or Eastern Knapweed (M. ornata). The underside allows definite id, as discussed in other threads - the characters are pretty obvious in SE European and Turkish in...

Great pictures! Some thoughts on id's: - The Kretania looks like pylaon/sephirus to me (although I have to admit I've never seen eurypilus live). Regarding systematics, new molecular phylogeny shows that all pylaon-group species belong to the genus Kretania (not Plebejus), so this is now the accepte...

Guy: The differences between phoebe and ornata are pretty consistent. I have seen hundreds of specimens during the last five years, and identification in the field (or by photographs) has never been a problem. Mikhail's link, which is taken from a fairly interesting article by Toth and Varga - Zoolo...

Hi Ray,

The fritillary is either Knapweed (Melitaea phoebe) or Eastern Knapweed (Melitaea ornata). If you have a shot of the underside, it will be easy to say.

Cheers,

N.

Hi Nigel,

Looks like Adonis to me: fringes are chequered (black veins extend all the way through the fringe).

Cheers,

N.

I agree that heavily marked serratulae can be tricky to identify from ups. Usually carthami is larger, more greyish in appearance and has brighter white bands on hw; of course all that is highly variable and very subjective. More importantly though, as far as I remember carthami is extremely rare an...

Hi, A little late with the reply, but thought you might find this interesting: Martin Wiemers (1998). Coenonympha darwiniana - a hybrid taxon? New insights through allozyme electrophoresis http://www.univie.ac.at/population-ecology/people/mw/wiemers_1998.pdf All the evidence you need to back your th...

Hi Buzzard, Here's my shot on your new photos: 1, 2, and 4: Plebejus [sephirus] brethertoni (the local [sub]species of Zephyr Blue) 3: Pyrgus serratulae (Olive Skipper) 5. Polyommatus dorylas (Turquoise Blue) 6. Polyommatus thersites (Chapman's Blue) 7. Melitaea trivia (Lesser Spotted Frit). Very sm...

Hi Buzzard, Another batch of great pictures; I particularly like (and envy) the Sage Skipper - never seen one myself... Guy is spot on with ids as usual. I only have doubts for the last blue - could it be Idas? The subspecies baldur , which occurs in the mountains of the Balkans and Turkey, is very ...

Hi Essexbuzzard,

Some excellent finds you've got there, and excellent pictures of them as well! I second Guy's ids; the anomalous blues are tricky but I'd say the first is definitely ripartii, and probably the second one as well. Skipper definitely Persian, congratulations!

Cheers,

Nikolay

Hi Part Timer, Seems you've been visiting some interesting places :D Regarding skippers: the Oriental Marbled ( Carcharodus orientalis ) has been reported from the Shablensko Ezero lake on the Black Sea coast (Abadjiev 2001). Tufted Marbled ( C. flocciferus ) is known to occur in NE Bulgaria; there ...

An excellent comparison! May I join in:

Hi Steve, Living in Eastern Canada for many years, I find The Butterflies of Canada by Layberry, Hall, and Lafontaine an excellent reference, but not exactly in a 'field guide' format - a bit large to carry in the field and using a traditional ('old fashioned') layout, with colour plates of set spec...

An additional remark here: in the field, the Persian Skipper looks very distinctive. It is much larger, flies much faster, and is much more contrasted than the Orbed Red Underwing. These features are not at all obvious on a photograph, but it's one more reason to stick to your original id based on f...

Hi Steve,

Some excellent pictures you've got there! About the Apollo - it is not "tatty" at all, it is actually a female in very good condition - they have less white than males. I envy you - still don't have a decent photo of a female...

Cheers,

Hi Paul, I have to say this still looks like S. orbifer to me. If you have a clear photo of the underside, the discal band (see Guy's post) is a certain identification feature. From the upperside, the hindwing discal spot is more squarish in phlomidis and it's part of an entire band (see my avatar :...

Thanks Mikhail, this is fantastic news!

From my (fairly recent - this summer) experience with C. caucasica from Rila: 1. Colour varies and id in flight is often impossible, particularly from a distance. 2. Id is easy if you manage a good photo of the upperside (fw for males, hw for females); the ups can be examined also if you catch the b...