Greenwings: French Alps, Mercantour, Queyras, 24 June to 9 July 2022

[petesmith]

Wow! That female Poplar Admiral close encounter must have been a bit special! I have only ever seen one female, egg-laying about 15 feet up in a Poplar in the Ubaye valley, and that was more than enough adrenaline for me. I can barely imagine the excitement of having one so close...

[David M]

It gave me quite a shock, Pete, I can tell you! Rimplas is full of surprises, as you know.

[David M]

Nymphalidae - Aristocrats

34. Small Tortoiseshell
35. Large Tortoiseshell
36. White Admiral
37. Southern White Admiral
38. Comma
39. Southern Comma
40. Red Admiral
41. Painted Lady
42. Poplar Admiral

[David M]

Amongst the Satyrids, Heaths were well represented with six in total. I didn't bother photographing Small Heath, but its cousin, Pearly Heath, is quite attractive and very common at lower altitudes:

Dusky Heath is far less common, but they can almost always be found at the fort above Rimplas:

Darwin's Heath is reliable on the road up to Col de la Cayolle:

Chestnut Heath is widespread in most areas above 1,500m or so:

Alpine Heath's range seems to stop somewhere just south of Col de Bonette. North of there, it is exceedingly abundant:

[David M]

One bizarre phenomenon was seeing hundreds of male Great Sooty Satyrs for several days during Week 1, but it wasn't until 5 days in that we saw our first female. By the second week, females were far more visible but still massively outnumbered by the males.

This is a big butterfly so one wonders where the females are hiding.

Female is at the back of the lavender, just right of centre:

[David M]

Nymphalidae - Satyrids

43. Ringlet
44. Great Banded Grayling
45. Woodland Grayling
46. Rock Grayling
47. Large Wall Brown
48. Wall Brown
49. Northern Wall Brown
50. Pearly Heath
51. Darwin's Heath
52. Alpine Heath
53. Dusky Heath
54. Chestnut Heath
55. Small Heath
56. Meadow Brown
57. Marbled White
58. Speckled Wood
59. Great Sooty Satyr
60. Grayling

[David M]

The usual selection of Pierids were around, but one of the advantages of the lavender bushes in Rimplas is that both Small and Southern Small White can be simultaneously found nectaring from them, which helps show people the difference between the two. This is also useful in the sense that it is relatively easy to photograph mannii:

[David M]

Pieridae

61. Orange Tip
62. Black Veined White
63. Berger's Clouded Yellow
64. Clouded Yellow
65. Mountain Clouded Yellow
66. Mountain Dappled White
67. Cleopatra
68. Brimstone
69. Wood White
70. Large White
71. Mountain Green Veined White
72. Green Veined White
73. Small White
74. Peak White
75. Bath White
76. Southern Small White

[David M]

In the Papilionidae family, the biggest surprise was seeing a personal record number of Small Apollos near Col Agnel. I'd been worried as the previous day we'd only seen one at our main site on the north side of Col de la Cayolle, but this apprehension was clearly misplaced, as there were at least three dozen flying near the streams flowing down the steep combes of the hillsides:

Apollos were commonplace too; they seem to have had a very good year:

As ever, there were fair numbers of Scarce Swallowtails (stupid name - they are anything but scarce), and every now and again a gorganus Swallowtail would pop up, sometimes alongside a podalirius:

[Matsukaze]

Does that lavender have some kind of special chemical composition? I must get some cuttings...

[David M]

Does that lavender have some kind of special chemical composition? I must get some cuttings...

Possibly, Chris, but I think it's more geographical than chemical.

We did a list at the end of the tour and we got to a minimum of 41 species that people had seen on those lavender bushes, ranging from Poplar Admiral & Southern Comma to Foulquier's Grizzled Skipper & Blue Spot Hairstreak.

I guess if you lived in the area your count would be approaching 70 during a whole year.

Incredible.

[David M]

Papilionidae

77. Swallowtail
78. Scarce Swallowtail
79. Apollo
80. Small Apollo
81. Clouded Apollo

[Roger Gibbons]

I guess if you lived in the area your count would be approaching 70 during a whole year.

Or if you go there almost every year at slightly different times, you could get to the 111 species I have recorded from there.

It is undoubtedly the most prolific location in terms of species diversity I have ever visited.

Roger

[David M]

...Or if you go there almost every year at slightly different times, you could get to the 111 species I have recorded from there.

It is undoubtedly the most prolific location in terms of species diversity I have ever visited.

It's a formidable statistic, Roger. If those lavenders were in flower for 6 months of the year I'm sure you could easily get near 100 garden ticks just on those alone!

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Blues

The early season caused some problems, the main one being that in Week 1, we only saw two Alpine Blues, both quite worn. I'd given up on them in the second week, but managed to find one near Col d'Izoard that was a little more presentable:

By contrast, Meleager's Blue, which we often struggle to see on this tour, was around in good numbers and was another species that could regularly be found on the village lavender blooms:

[David M]

On the first day I made a major faux pas. I tried to take everyone to Madone de Fenestre to see Balkan Fritillary, but had to abort it due to the road being closed due to damage caused by landslides. I had to think very quickly so I told the group we'd be going to the ski station at La Colmiane, which was only a 20 minute drive away.

I'd never visited before but was pleasantly surprised by the habitat, and delighted when I found Mountain Alcon Blue females flying at the lower end of the grassy slopes:

They had been busy laying eggs on the gentians:

It was nice to know of a site for this rare species a mere 25 minutes from the base hotel. Previously, we'd had to travel to Beuil over a mountain pass to see them.

[David M]

We saw Damon Blue in both weeks, with numbers increasing as time went on:

A couple of Chequered Blues were seen on the forest track at Rimplas:

A small number of Large Blues were seen, with this female being the best:

[David M]

Some species were plentiful. Both Silver Studded and Idas Blue came into this category, although the latter tends to only hit its peak a few days into July. I always panic a little as to how easily I can tell between them, but once I've seen a few Idas I remember that it's not difficult.

Silver Studded:

Idas:

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Blues

82. Brown Argus
83. Mountain Argus
84. Geranium Argus
85. Silvery Argus
86. Holly Blue
87. Small Blue
88. Mazarine Blue
89. Lang's Short Tailed Blue
90. Mountain Alcon Blue
91. Large Blue
92. Silver Studded Blue
93. Idas Blue
94. Glandon Blue
95. Alpine Blue
96. Amanda's Blue
97. Adonis Blue
98. Chalkhill Blue
99. Damon Blue
100. Turquoise Blue
101. Meleager's Blue
102. Eros Blue
103. Escher's Blue
104. Common Blue
105. Chapman's Blue
106. Baton Blue
107. Chequered Blue

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Coppers

Got the full range, but having been 'Coppered-out' in both Greece and Italy, I didn't take many photos of them, although I made an exception for this female Scarce Copper: