A glorious warm and sunny day up at Incombe Hole again, and a genuine feast of spring butterfly species. Dave, your photos were on show today at the Herts & Middx AGM. I make a couple of trips to Inchcombe Hole each year, but it looks like it's already an early season (thanks for the info), so ...

I recall some time ago, a well-known conservationist (can’t remember who) was asked what is your favourite butterfly. He thought for a moment and said “whichever one I am looking at that moment”. Yep, that’s it in a nutshell. Speckled Wood uninspiring? OK, this is a female of the nominate form from ...

I'll add my congratulations in helping to make UK Butterflies such a great site, especially in making these forums a must for a daily visit.

Roger

My twopennyworth - I agree the carlinae cell spot is within the range of variation, but at the edges, so maybe less likely on a probability basis. We have seen earlier this year that serratulae can have stronger upf markings but it would appear that this was in the first generation. This was in July...

Melitaea ignasiti (formerly Melitaea trivia ignasiti) has been confirmed in the Pyrénées-Orientales and is recorded (without recent confirmation, to my knowledge) from the Alpes Maritimes. So I think that should be your final challenge! I've seen the species in Spain, just south of the Pyrenees, an...

Mention of cycling brings back a memory of when I was 10 (1957 Easter holidays, I think), when a group of us were cycling along a lane in Bricket Wood, which was about six miles from where we lived in Borehamwood. I was at the front of the group when I saw a Brimstone. “Look a Brimstone” I said, but...

I put this image blind to a French expert who has studied lupina and confirmed IDs by examining the male upf, so he is well qualified to comment. His view was that it is lycaon , with quite a degree of uncertainty, based on the irrorations (speckles), which I thought quite light and pointed towards ...

Thanks for all your congratulations, although all I did in practice was to wander around France for the past forty years looking at butterflies. Some species are highly localised, some very much so. I have been very lucky in that for some species ( scipio, chrysippus, hero, iolas , etc) I had been g...

I managed to persuade my wife that, on our trip back down the south coast of France, that we should make a sizeable diversion though the Jura to a known site for Water Ringlet ( Erebia pronoe ), for me the last remaining French species of the 237 mainland species. It is a late summer species and, al...

The elements that drew me toward lupina were the unh smoothness – the lack of what Higgins & Riley call “irrorations” – little speckles. That, coupled with the lack of a discal line and the degree to which the hw extends much further than the fw, says 70:30 lupina to me. The degree of scalloping...

Hi Paul, Your Rock Graying is a Grayling, that's clearly just a mis-labelling, but the main reason for this post is that your Dusky Meadow Brown ( H. lycaon ) looks like a very good candidate for Oriental Meadow Brown ( H. lupina ). If lupina is known to fly in that region, I would suggest it's wort...

Hi Paul, The False Ringlet ( C. oedippus ) really is a special species (if you'll forgive the tautology). Your Eastern Wood White ( L. duponcheli ) looks like sinapis to me. Some sinapis are heavily shaded, especially the first brood, in very much the same way as duponcheli (after all, they are clos...

I'm truly flattered my admission of ignorance made such an impression on you, Roger! :D I remember that trip to Bretaye. We took a walk along a cow track where various Erebia come to take minerals - and I think we failed to see water ringlet ... It's a late species there. We did see a stoat among t...

University Challenge has finally got under way today :D We are just catching up on the rounds that we recorded, just watched semi-final 1 from the last series. As the rounds progress, the questions get harder and the knowledge of the contestants is just mind-blowing. There was one question on a cla...

Hi David, Fascinating trip and report! I have absolutely no knowledge of the Arctic Circle butterflies, and there are some endemics that resemble the Alpine species quite closely. With that caveat, the hindwing angularity looks good for aquilonaris . The mark in upf discal s1 that you mention: I loo...

Hi Guy, It looked fairly normal for alveus in that region, where it is usually encountered but not common. For foulquieri ( bellieri ), I would expect the upf markings to be stronger and rather jagged at the edges. This seems to be constant for males, females being very different (which I mention fo...

Just back on the subject of aurelia for a moment, here is an extract from the CEN-PACA Atlas showing the distribution of aurelia in the Hautes-Alpes. It may come as something of a surprise to those who are used to thinking of aurelia as essentially a lowland species, that it has such a stronghold at...

12-13 July: Various locations around Briançon. An exploration of tracks and dead-end roads leading off the N94 south of Briançon, just see what was flying there. Not many unusual species, male Provence Short-tailed Blues ( Cupido alcetas ) seen in two locations, a species that I suspect is often ove...

Correction – the underside image is not of the Melitaea in question. It was taken on 8 July at a site known for aurelia as the upperside showed some indication of aurelia , but I am fairly sure it wasn’t. So the reservations we all expressed about the unf s2 heavy shading would no longer apply. Whic...

I'm guessing you haven't got an underside for her ... Yes, just about. Bearing in mind that the colour and contrast of the marginal band might be vital evidence, I managed to get this crouched-below shot. Melitaea aurelia_52557.JPG It's not remotely conclusive but there is a suggestion that the ban...