April sightings South Brittany

[Elaine]

Yesterday whilst walking the dogs in the sunshine :

Brimstone (Citron) - Good numbers, including mating couples (my first females this year);
Peacock (Paon du jour) - again good numbers (they were the ones settling on the tarmac as per ....);
Small White (Piéride de la rave) - one
Small Copper (Cuivré commun) - two (first this year)
Speckled Wood (Tircis) - one (second this year). Our Speckled's are very orange. Apparently, this is to do with the temperature when they are in the cocoon?

On a non-butterfly front - we are being deafened (well, it is quite loud) by frogs this evening! Probably the European Tree Frogs. Happy days!

[Elaine]

Yesterday a Holly Blue (Azuré de nerprun) in the garden. They were extremely scarce here in 2009, so here's wishing them well this year.

Today the temperature topped 17°C in the shade today. We picnicked on the beach at lunch time.

[Elaine]

My first Orange Tip (Aurore Printanière) this afternoon whilst teaching at the dog club near Vannes. Unfortunately, the group remained un-impressed even when I gave the French name - not everyone shares our passion for nature!

[Elaine]

A Large Tortoishell (Grande Tortue) today - my second this year.

And my first Hoopoe (Huppe fasciée) this year - I was in the garden this morning and heard it calling nearby. Very late compared to other years.

[Elaine]

On "walkies" from home on Wednesday 14th :

Large Tortoishell (Grande Tortue)
Comma (Robert le diable)
Orange tip (Aurore printanière)
Green-veined white (Piéride du navet)
Small White (Piéride de la rave)
Small Copper (Cuivré commun)
Red Admiral (Vulcain)
Peacock (Paon du jour)
Speckled Wood (Tircis)
Wall (Mégère)
Holly Blue (Azuré de nerprun)

[Lee Hurrell]

Hi Elaine,

I am loving the French names you provide with your sightings

The Red Admiral is known as (La?) Vulcain - brilliant.

Are they a mix of the French common names and latin though? As in Speckled Wood, with Tircis being the latin subspecies. If that's the case, what's the French common name for Speckled Wood?

This is fascinating, especially as I'm going to France in June!

Cheers

Lee

[Padfield]

Hi Lee,

You might like to make use of my French list of butterflies I've photographed, here:

http://www.guypadfield.com/speciesfr.html

It corresponds to my English list here:

http://www.guypadfield.com/speciesen.html

Both are linked from my main page. I've tried to keep the French list up to date, but I think there are a few species missing from it all the same.

Guy

[Elaine]

As far as I am aware, Padfield, all the names I give in brackets are the French common names- maybe deriving from the latin in some cases. It is "le vulcain". However, in my experience the "French Latin" is not always the same as the "English Latin" and this completely goes against the whole idea of latin names! This is true not just for latin names given in French books, but also on French websites and is not just confined to butterflies, but to moths, dragonflies and birds .....

Guy you may like to look at this link http://www.lepinet.fr/especes/nation/le ... l&id=29501 which gives the French common name for the Western Dappled White and will maybe help you to find other names for your list.

And you may all find this quiz fun to have a go at, although it is mainly moths and you need to know your French latin or common names to play! When I don't know the name I do a search on other websites to find the English common name (without cheating and looking at the photos!).

http://www.lepinet.fr/quizz/index.php

[Padfield]

Thanks Elaine. I'd forgotten I'd left the French names off some of those butterflies! So I've put them in now. When I made the crameri page I didn't know what to list it as because all my old French books either failed to recognise it as a separate taxon or confused ausonia/crameri with simplonia. But since the web page you linked to gives an alternative as le marbré de Cramer I've decided to use that, and leave la piéride des biscutelles for ausonia. Lafranchis uses this last name for crameri, but that is in his guide just to French butterflies, and ausonia doesn't fly in France. Similarly, marshalli wasn't in the French books when I made that page (it only appeared in Europe in the 1980s) and cirsii was considered a subspecies of carlinae. Anyway, I've updated them all now!!

In Switzerland we only ever use the Latin names. No confusion arises because although the genera change on a whim, the specific names are mostly constant and we only use the specific (or often just the subspecific) names. It is a bit annoying when a species gets split and the familiar name zooms off to some type locality in a distant country (venatus/faunus!!) but that happens so rarely we all know about it anyway. The culture of names is very different in Switzerland from in England - everyone I know uses the Latin names exclusively, so the French names are mostly just academic.

Guy

[Lee Hurrell]

Thanks for the links Elaine and Guy, very useful!

Cheers

Lee

[Elaine]

Great excitement here this morning. A beautiful, sunny day (just put a temp guage out in full sun on my patio table and it hit 37°C and was still climbing!In the shade it is steady at 27). Took the dogs for a walk at La Roche-Bernard on the banks of the river Vilaine this morning, T-shirts and sun-cream ( ) and ......

3 Clouded Yellow (Souci) butterflies! Don't ask me which of the Clouded's , but they were a deep yellow with black edging all round on all wings. My daughter was with me and we managed a close view of one, landed. No camera!

In 2006 I recorded one in our garden on 24th April. That year numbers were good. Then followed 3 years with very few sightings and those late in the year (September). Last summer was good for this species here. So here's hoping for a good Clouded Yellow year.

[Padfield]

Hi Elaine,

Your description only really matches the clouded yellow, Colias croceus. That looks a deep butter-yellow in flight, while the pale clouded yellow and Berger's pale clouded yellow (hyale and alfacariensis) both look lemon yellow (or white in the case of females).

Hard winters usually kill off the clouded yellows here in Switzerland, as this winter seems to have done, and we have to wait for the migrants to arrive. I'm interested you have already seen some. Berger's is quite sedentary and always survives (it has to) - this species is now flying here. Pale clouded is less sedentary and is the lemon-yellow species you are most likely to see in Brittany.

Guy

[Elaine]

Hi Guy,

I checked with my daughter when she came round today - she says deep yellow too. But, as I said, we are capable of identifying "Clouded Yellow sp" and not of defining which sp. If it helps, they were a lot deeper yellowy-orange than the Brimstone males - which is what first brought my attention to them.

Today we visited the marshes - a 20 min drive south - with the intention of finding Camberwell Beauty (Morio). Although we found 4 individuals, it took a lot of patience and knowledge of their usual haunts. They were less numerous than in previous visits at this time of year.

[Lee Hurrell]

Hi Elaine,

In that case certainly Clouded Yellow, Colias croceus. To my eye they are a mustard yellow where, as Guy says, Pale Clouded and Berger's Clouded Yellow are primrose yellow. The difficulty comes in separating females of the latter two species and the form helice of the female Clouded Yellow, all of which are white...

Separating Pale and Berger's is something else entirely

Cheers

Lee

[Elaine]

Blimey! I am just happy to be able to tell a Clouded Yellow from a Sparrow!

I teach English to the French and French to the English - from 4 year olds to retired folk (the day job). I'm also a qualified dog trainer and give lessons at the local dog club and compete (very successfully) in agility and give demos of dancing with dogs and obedience (all voluntary). I translate for the Tourist Office and local Wildlife Trust when they pair up to give guided nature tours in the area (voluntary)....... and translate for Brits looking for properties over here. I can id lots of birds by their call alone and moths caught in my moth trap and dragonflies and damselflies (not in the trap!). I know the French common name for most of these also.

Which makes me an expert on absolutely nothing!

[Lee Hurrell]

You sound incredibly busy Elaine

I'd imagine a lot of those jobs and hobbies you list are extremely rewarding.

Cheers

Lee

[Elaine]

They are extremely rewarding, but I have a lot to learn about butterflies from you guys. Which is the beauty of such a forum.

I just wish I had had the camera with me to help you help me id those pesky Clouded's!

Just today I have been photographing dragonfly larvae casts (exuviae)in my pond, to try and learn more about them. Stupidly, my first thought was that there was a problem with my pond water and they had all died. Then I "googled" to find out that they shed their skins several times - so everything is OK! I am fairly sure that the bigger one (3.5 cm) is the Emperor Dragonfly (lots of them ovipositing last summer). So I contacted someone by email and hope to have a reply.

My point was that I know a bit about several subjects - but that is because of my thirst for knowledge (which never stops) and I appreciate the expertise on this forum. If I can then pass some knowledge onto others that are also learning (especially the future generation), then it was worth my time.

[Lee Hurrell]

my thirst for knowledge (which never stops)

I feel exactly the same! In fact I've used that phrase myself many times.

If I can then pass some knowledge onto others that are also learning (especially the future generation), then it was worth my time.

I whole heartedly agree. One of our friends has 4 year old twins and they love watching butterflies with me when they're over. Last year they were chasing them all over my garden and wanted to see more. If one little spark of interest has started for the future, or even if they just remember the name of a Peacock, I'd be chuffed.

At the weekend I was photographing a Peacock on the North Downs in Kent and 2 girls came up and asked what I was doing. I explained about the butterfly and they asked what it was and wanted to see it. Brilliant.

Cheers

Lee

[Elaine]

Not a butterfly, but the proof that I was right about our white tadpoles. The Tree Frogs have been deafening us in the evenings lately and the small clumps of white frogspawn are turning into white tadpoles. Today we found 2 Tree Frogs on the edge of our pond when we moved some stones -

[Elaine]

Saturday 24th - 2 Large Red Damselflies (Corps de feu) laid claim to my first dragonfly/damselfly sighting of the year. I had to get up close and personal to check the colour of the legs - black for the Large, whereas the Small has red legs.