Butterflies of Var, Southern France

[Gruditch]

Some lovely pictures Roger,

Gruditch

[Dave McCormick]

Great photos Roger. The brown argus caption is funny

[FISHiEE]

Excellent pics. I shall be in provence in 4 weeks

[Matsukaze]

Just got back from an extended week in this area. Currently the species list is at 36 - about what I see in a year at home - of which approaching half were new species for me. As Roger suggests, though, the majority of butterflies are common and familiar in the UK. Particularly notable were the Painted Ladies, getting more widespread as the week went on with one flying past every few hundred yards as we drove back towards the coast. Also plenty of pierids - Brimstones, Orange-tips and smaller whites, which did not often hang around to allow for identification.

An exotic touch was provided by Scarce Swallowtails, which were common, particularly noticeable in urban areas. They appeared highly territorial, and flew with an almost dragonfly-like grace, gliding, hovering and occasionally darting, all with seeming ease.

[Matsukaze]

A batch of blues for ID. Taken at altitudes of around 400-600m.

Pretty sure this is Brown Argus:

Common Blue?

Green-underside Blue, from the suffusion (can anyone identify the shrub it is on?)

I thought this was Mazarine Blue, but the upperside shade of blue is too pale, then Green-underside Blue, then I noticed the ghost lunules...so, Black-eyed Blue?

Very worn Holly Blue, based on the spots elongating to become dashes?

[Padfield]

Your IDs are all correct. The plant is bladder senna (I think), the foodplant of iolas blue... You were in the right place at the right time. Did you see any huge blues?



Guy

[Matsukaze]

Sadly not; but it was a single shrub in a sheltered river valley hotspot, and attracted Green-underside and Common Blue, Green Hairstreak, Moroccan Orange-tip and Wood White, as well as some sort of bumblebee. The Black-eyed Blue was photographed across the road from it as well.

[Matsukaze]

Some fritillaries. These were very active, almost as reluctant to settle as the whites.

I think this is male Spotted Fritillary:

Male and female?

I am sure this is Marsh Fritillary but what is this supposedly rapidly declining and endangered species doing in a seemingly nondescript field a short distance from the house we were staying in?

This one has me baffled but a tentative guess is female Spotted Fritillary:

In the mountains there were plenty of Queen of Spain Fritillaries but they would not settle; the best pictures I managed were of freshly abandoned nectar sources. Weaver's Fritillary was more amenable to photography, but only just:

[Padfield]

Your IDs are all correct again, including the femle spotted fritillary. This is a very variable butterfly - especially the female - and the forewings can vary from completely obscured, through normal orange, to white, like this one (from Switzerland, last year):



Guy

[Matsukaze]

Many thanks Guy.

A few more blues:

These three (separate insects) are, I think, Common Blues. The first I am really unsure about, and have not seen one marked like this. The raying was most distinctive and beautiful.

I am sure this butterfly is Small Blue, but it was a long way from anywhere that looked like it might contain foodplant.

Are these two Baton Blues?

Up in the mountains at 1000m was this butterfly. I am undecided if it is Black-eyed or Green-underside Blue.

[Matsukaze]

One butterfly present in a very different habitat in Provence to southern England is the Adonis Blue. We were foraging for firewood by this roadside, where trees had recently been felled, when we discovered a small emergence of Adonis Blues. Small amounts of foodplant could be seen in the cleared area, which also struck me as strange as I had always thought horseshoe vetch was a poor coloniser - is the situation different in southern Europe? It was also nice to find Wall Brown in the same location. I rarely see more than one or two of either species per year at home.

[Padfield]

For the first female blue I would go for escheri. Roger knows his local butterflies and their forms better than I do, so I am expecting a challenge on this (or any of the others, for that matter) but in my experience, that is what it would be. I note, amongst other things, the half-chequering on the hindwing particularly and the general 'clear' appearance of the butterfly, with bright, complete marginal markings. I haven't got any pictures of escheri showing that beautiful dark raying, but it doesn't strike me as improbable. For the others, I think again that you're right!

Guy

[Padfield]

Oh - and your undecided blue is melanops.

Guy

[Paul]

In the first set of photos, the second one down doesn't have a hind forewing cell spot... could be Common, but ?? Chapman's.

[Padfield]

In the first set of photos, the second one down doesn't have a hind forewing cell spot... could be Common, but ?? Chapman's.

If I'm looking at the right set of photos, the second one down is brown argus.

Chapman's and icarinus can be problematic, but when you get your eye in the males can always be separated by the androconial patch at the base of the forewing (in Chapman's). There are underside differences in addition to the cell spot thing, but these only really give you a percentage thing.

Guy

[Paul]

Yes... sorry, 2nd one down is grouped as argus... too many assumptions, not enough looking on my part... assumption mainly because of bluish refractions from upperwing

[Roger Gibbons]

A couple of quick observations: Marsh Fritillary certainly isn’t endangered in Var. I have visited two sites in the past week and could have counted hundreds at each, and it occurs in most places. Nice photo of the “white” female Spotted Frit, Guy, but here’s one (14944) that would be hard to beat for blackness (and it has a deformed wings and antenna, just to add to the weirdness factor).

The female blue (#1) - I would go for Common rather than Escher’s, on the grounds of the uph marginal lunules look very much like Common, which is very variable down here although I have never seen the orange raying as on this one. On more circumstantial grounds, Escher’s is generally not common and the female seems quite rare to me – I guess I see 20 males to every female and I cannot recall seeing a female for a couple of years (and I do look at a lot of undersides). The female underside is very characteristic, so if you have an underside shot of this individual, I think it would be clear-cut. Perhaps more significantly, Lafranchis gives the flight period as from June (exceptionally end-May) and if it were seen before 14 May I would think it unlikely to be Escher’s, especially a female as they usually emerge a week later than males. This isn’t absolute by any means but the probabilities point strongly to Common.

Re Common/Chapman’s, I think there is a unf cell spot just visible above the hindwing? Always assuming I’m looking a the right photo. As Guy says, there are pointers and the unf cell spot is a good start (I have never seen Common of the form icarinus, so cannot comment on this) but you need to be sure you can see enough of the unf – quite often the unf is tucked down and it just looks like there is no cell spot. The other pointers are: the male is quite a distinctive violet-blue, quite clear when you’ve seen a few; the unh marginal black spots sit nicely and centrally within the white area (in Common some/all are usually touching the orange); and Chapman’s is usually seen sitting on sainfoin.

In passing, Black-eyed Blue seems considerably more widespread in Provence than I have ever seen it before. I never thought of it as common (or, at least, frequently encountered) until now.

[Matsukaze]

Thanks Roger, no underside pic unfortunately. Must put up a few more pics when I eventually get round to editing them.

[Roger Gibbons]

Here are a few of the highlights of my butterfly year so far. I have so far seen 167 species in France, including five life-ticks (i.e. a first-ever sighting) and for four of those I am indebted to a French colleague who provided specific location and flight period information.

I have put more highlights here if anyone is interested.
http://www.butterfliesoffrance.com/2009 ... s_grid.htm

17643 is a Glandon Blue, slightly larger than a Small Blue but with a distinctive steely grey-blue upperside colouring (a photo of the upperside is also on these highlights). It is a high altitude butterfly and in past years I have found it only occasionally in the Alps, but this year it seemed much more widespread and in greater numbers. I don’t know if I have been going to better Glandon sites (there is a Col du Glandon and I did see it nearby) or whether it is enjoying a good year.

17028 is a very typical Heath Fritillary. It was at an altitude of 950m and is quite often found flying at altitudes of 2000m and above. It is found very frequently in France and is often very common. I think this one had only just emerged as it seemed to be drying its wings, and does not appear to have even a single scale missing.

18151 is a Camberwell Beauty, a female I think based on the body shape. It stopped off for a quick drink at a muddy puddle in the Ecrins National Park in the French Alps. I very rarely see females “puddling” at wet patches of earth and generally tend to assume that only males do this as they need the salts from the ground, but I guess females may need to take just moisture. The borders seem very wide to me, but then I mostly only see hibernators in the spring which often have rather battered borders. The photo does no do justice to the yellow borders and blue spots which tend to sparkle nicely in real life. I visited the muddy puddle over a period of two days and saw a total of 56 species there, including Purple Emperor and Lesser Purple Emperor (both the nominate form and the more orange form clytie, flying together).

[Padfield]

The pictures in your 'highlights' are fantastic, Roger! Really good shots, capturing the species' jizz.

Of course, you've really seen 168 this year (I'm currently exactly 20 behind you, exclusively for Switzerland as I can't afford to go on holiday this year), as you will have seen loads of reali. In Switzerland reali and sinapis fly together, in proportions of roughly 1:3. If you haven't done so already, check out this site: http://www.pieris.ch/diagnostik/s_reali_01.html, which mentions an alleged way of telling them apart. I've tried applying it to my own 'sinapis' and I do find that this feature is indeed variable and many individuals fall quite clearly into one bracket or the other (while some cannot be placed). The sinapis on your highlights page would be sinapis according to this criterion. Here is an individual from Huémoz where the relevant mark appeared manifestly curved when looking at the butterfly from a distance (really quite striking):



I think that is reali.

The distinction doesn't work brilliantly on the pictures in UK butts, but I have read other alleged distinctions between the two species and they were all locally dependent - i.e., you had to vary the feature dependent on the locality. Perhaps this is limited to the Swiss or central European populations.

Any thoughts?

Guy