The undoubted highlight of this trip was the visit to a quarry on a Sunday afternoon. This is a working quarry but the western edge is a distance away from the busy area, and given it was the sabbath in a catholic country there was nobody around.
We ventured a few metres up the track and saw a Swallowtail flying around the slopes. There was something about it that looked a bit 'different' so I scrambled up the slope and took an image of it as it approached some flowers:
It was immediately clear that this was
alexanor, the butterfly we'd hoped to see, and for the next few minutes we all watched as two or three were seen floating around the slopes, although getting near them was impossible.
Then, as we were back by the entrance, one of the guests said there was one behind him and I said I could see two. They both disappeared into the steep gully behind the entrance but did not re-emerge.
I suspected that this could be a male and female and went into the gully to investigate. At that moment, Ben appeared from the higher slope and managed to spot them in cop part-way up the bank:
Suddenly, most of the guests forgot how difficult climbing dusty, prickly slopes was and within a couple of minutes almost everybody in the group had come over to take a look at this rare event:
Both butterflies were pristine, and the blue bands on the female were particularly striking.
I've never had such a spectacular introduction to a new species for me in my life, and I doubt I will ever see such a thing again.
