On our route to Var in south-central France in mid-May, we made a “slight” diversion of about 250 miles to spend a day or two in the eastern Pyrenees mainly for Spanish Fritillary (
Euphydryas desfontainii) at a little-known location which I had been told about but only after I had been sworn to secrecy, almost on pain of death. It may be one of very few, possibly the only, site on the French side of the Pyrenees where
desfontainii still flies.
The well-known site near Sournia, too well-known it appears, has seemingly been eradicated by person or persons unknown that allegedly removed all of the eggs. I’m not sure if it has been seen in that region since. Last year I met some people from CEN-Occitanie (the conservation body) there who were searching there for
desfontainii without success. It just reinforces the need for confidentiality for sites of threatened species. It is more widespread on the Spanish side, but still very localised, as reports from Pete S and David M have illustrated.
A stop half-way south near Vierzon at a spot I had seen Chequered Skipper (
Carterocephalus palaemon) some 25 years ago (and last year at the same spot). All butterflies are equal, but some are more equal than others, and
palaemon is one of the latter. Here is a very fresh male.
On to the
desfontainii site. The weather was dreadful for the two days we were there, 12C and virtually no sun. So it was a case of spotting roosters for the most part, and a few moments of weak sun just enough to tempt a few to open up briefly, which is actually not too far from ideal from a photography point of view.
The problem with
desfontainii is that it very thoughtlessly flies with the much more numerous subspecies of Marsh Fritillary (
E. aurinia) ssp
beckeri, which it very closely resembles. In passing,
aurinia is a very unusual species with so many different forms, most far removed from anything that could be described as marsh.
Here are a couple of female
desfontainii and a male
beckeri below.
The underside are very different – here is
desfontainii, probably a male – and a male
beckeri.
It is allegedly a late season, but the two (what I think are) female
desfontainii are showing signs of wear and the one sure male we saw was quite battered, so we were clearly a week or so past the peak flight period.
There have been drought warnings in southern France since April, almost unprecedented, but plenty of much-needed rain in the past few days, including today (hence this post). The butterfly numbers here are much reduced but maybe the rain will help to restore some normality.
Roger
