My two cents: just based on the upw my best guess would be serratulae . Especially the uph looks quite typical for serratulae from this region with the combination of a carthami-like string of submarginal spots (although being less whitish, less long, less narrow and less clearly demarcated than the...

Dear Paul, With regard to the missed Yellow-banded skipper, you may also have been too late. During early May 2024 I saw them already flying in fairly good numbers at ~ 500m altitude near Rians, while the also at this location occurring Twin-spotted Fritillaries had not emerged yet. Kind regards, Be...

Hi Guy, for what it's worth: I would probably never ID any pyrgus with a high degree of certainty from its upperside alone, but that might just be a psychological issue :wink:, but in case of foulquieri, I would say that the following combination of characteritics are very strong pointers towards a ...

I have updated the link in above mentioned post, as it did not work properly.

CdlC = Col de la Cayolle
CdlB = Col de la Bonnette
CdV = Col de Vars

Papilionidae 95. Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) 96. Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) 97. Apollo (Parnassius apollo) – very very few No Small Apollo this year, despite repeated visits to quite reliable locations for this species at CdlC. Pierids 98. Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines) 99. B...

Nymphalids – Aristocrats 62. Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) 63. Comma (Polygonia c-album) 64. Southern White Admiral (Limenitis reducta) 65. Lesser Purple Emperor (Apatura ilia) – one near Le Lauzet-Ubaye 66. Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) Missed out on Painted Lady. One large Emperor near Ba...

Nymphalids – Fritillaries 45. High Brown Fritillary (Argynnis adippe) 46. Dark Green Fritillary (Argynnis aglaja) – only very few during first week, becoming more regular during second week 47. Niobe Fritillary (Fabriciana niobe) – remarkably scarce 48. Silver Washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia) – ...

Coppers & Haistreaks 38. Purple-edged Copper (Lycaena hippothoe) 39. Sooty Copper (Lycaena tityrus) 40. Scarce Copper (Lycaena virgaureae) – only few 41. White-letter Hairstreak (Satyrium w-album) – several at reliable location near Barcelonnette 42. Blue-spot Hairstreak (Satyrium spini) – only...

Lycaenids – Blues 16. Long-tailed Blue (Lampides boeticus) – one in Gap 17. Geranium Bronze (Cacyreus marshalli) – near Barcelonnette 18. Mountain Argus (Aricia artaxerxes) 19. Geranium Argus (Aricia eumedon) – abundant on still flowering geraniums 20. Silvery Argus (Aricia nicias) – only one at Cd...

Species list 13 July to 26 July 2024 Hesperids 1. Tufted Marbled Skipper (Carcharodus flocciferus) 2. Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages) 3. Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) 4. Large Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus alveus) 5. Safflower Skipper (Pyrgus carthami) – small numbers 6. Southern Grizzled Skipper (Pyr...

I have made a collection of my photographs of Pyrgys serratulae from the Ubaye region in SE France on the following website: https://vlinderszuidfransealpen.blogspot.com/2024/08/during-last-2-summer-holidays-with-my.html , depicting the upper- and underwings of 16 individuals. all photographs have b...

From July 13 to July 26, I spent my summer holiday with my family in the Ubaye region in the Alps of southeastern France. This is a valley between the Mercantour and the Queyras with easy access to butterfly hot spots like the Col de la Cayolle, Col de Vars and Col de la Bonnette. Previous 2 years w...

Hi Guy, Thanks a lot for your valuable thoughts on this specimen. My earlier considerations can be summarised as follows: a. alveus + unh pattern +/- uph / upf pattern (too sparsely marked to be typical) +/- ground colour upperwing quite warm coloured, but wear and late afternoon sunlight might enha...

Hi all, Last summer I came accross this pyrgus. I photographed it on 25 July at 1700m altitude (northern slope) near Barcelonnette, Ubaye, France. It was a small pyrgus, although the lack of direct comparison with other pyrgus makes such a claim rather subjective. Sofar, I have left it unidentified ...

Hi Roger, I've got some books with me. To cite a few sources: - Jacquier, Éléments d'identification des Pyrgus de France métropolitaine (2017): "pale spots weakly marked" [translated from French] - Lafranchis, Dagvlinders van Europa (2009): "uph without obvious pale markings" [tr...

Thanks a lot for your feedback, Roger! Good to see, that you have choosen the other side ;-). Regarding the pyrgus from Jausiers, I should add that it flew at 2500m altitude and was noticeably tiny, as even the photo suggests. I can't recall the latter however from the Monieux specimen. I didn't exp...

Hi all, During the past 3 years I have spent together with my family some holidays in the south eastern part of France. During spring (late April or early May) I visited the Vaucluse and during summer I visited the Ubaye region of the French alps. Studying the variation in pyrgus species is there on...