Greenwings: French Alps, 24 June to 1 July 2023

[David M]

Another delightful week spent in the French Alps, although this one was trickier than usual, largely due to the late season and a couple of days of poor weather which forced us to be a little creative in our attempts to maximise the butterfly returns.

The views were spectacular as usual and the vegetation was in excellent condition given the rain this region has seen over the past few months.

[John Vergo]

Looking forward to the rest David

[petesmith]

Awaiting with bated breath!

[Matsukaze]

Likewise. It looked a lot more wintry than that two weeks earlier!

[David M]

Thanks, all. This was a most peculiar week and we missed out on several species that we routinely see, although thanks to a day long diversion we picked up others that we have never had on this tour.

[David M]

I knew on the first afternoon that things weren't right. A walk down the forest track behind the hotel yielded much fewer butterflies than normal, with Heath Fritillaries only just beginning to emerge.

Furthermore, the four magnificent, ornamental lavender bushes at the top of the road, upon which we had seen over thirty different species last year, were not even in flower!!

The first full day was spent at 1,500m, and although we had some decent butterflies, e.g. Mountain Alcon Blue, Lesser Marbled Fritillary, Geranium Argus, Green-Underside Blue & Purple Shot Copper, the day was notable for its absentees.

So, based on advice from several people (including UKB's Paul Selby who had spent the previous week in the Piedmont Alps), I asked guests if they were happy to venture over Col de la Lombarde the following day to find Scarce Fritillary in Italy. Everybody was deliriously happy with that.

Normally, I wouldn't risk such a trip as maturna would, in a normal year, be right at the tail end of its flight season by 26th June. Not so this year, we found quite a few, nearly all of which were in excellent condition:

[Padfield]

Hi David. This population of scarce fritillary, which actually looks more like Asian fritillary, was recognised in 2015 as a new species, the Piedmont fritillary, Euphydryas italica. The pdf is here:

https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Atalanta_46_0111-0116.pdf

I don't know how widely accepted that is, but Leraut included it as a distinct species without comment in his 2016 Butterflies of Europe and neighbouring regions. Kudrna says in the latest edition of his atlas that the two green dots in north-west Italy may be referable to E. italica (though there's a typo, and it actually says I. italica).

I don't do envy, but if I did, you'd get one of those little green emoticons!

Guy

[David M]

Thank you, Guy. I've heard references to this before, but given that it's still not on EBG's latest European Butterflies' checklist I've assumed it's still in dispute amongst taxonomists and have continued to refer to it as maturna.

If italica does go on to obtain unanimous acceptance then it will surely be one of Europe's rarest and most localised butterfly species.

[David M]

Having made the effort to drive into Italy, it made sense to look for another butterfly which is never seen on the French Alps tour - Southern Swallowtail.

The quarry where it can often be found was an easy enough journey and within 10 minutes Jon, my co-guide, shouted that he had one. It flew right by me and on up the steep rock face.

Jon climbed up this slope but before long he was heading back down, as several of these butterflies were now descending to take nectar (albeit only briefly) from the thistles. I was too busy helping guests get into position to take any images, but Jon kindly allowed me to post this shot that he took from about 5 metres away:

[David M]

We had another first on this tour due to having to spend an afternoon at lower altitude because of poor weather.

We stopped at a scrubby meadow close to the Durance river and found quite a bit that was interesting even in overcast conditions.

Best amongst these were several Spanish Purple Hairstreaks, a butterfly I didn't know was present in the area:

[David M]

So, three species new to this tour (which is now in its 10th year) was very welcome.

Sadly, this is eclipsed by the number of species we did not see yet which have been routinely seen every single previous year. They are:

Tufted Marbled Skipper, Silvery Argus, Idas Blue, Mountain Fritillary, Cynthia's Fritillary, Grison's Fritillary, Southern Comma, Mountain Clouded Yellow, Dusky Heath, Chestnut Heath and Blind Ringlet.

In addition to these, there were others that were seen in very low numbers that are usually common, e.g, Large Ringlet, Purple Edged Copper, Safflower Skipper & Chalkhill Blue.

I'm not sure if the abnormally late season is solely to blame. Things at altitude in southern Europe have never really recovered from the effects of the 'Beast from the East' in the spring of 2018.

All one can hope for is a return to some kind of normality over the next few years, because I really don't want to be witnessing such a scarcity of butterflies every summer up here.

[David M]

Hesperiidae

The late season threw up a couple that we don't normally see in the shape of Oberthur's and Rosy Grizzled Skipper.

There were several Alpine Grizzled Skippers recorded:

Safflower Skippers were scarce however. Here's one of the few we saw puddling amongst a group of other butterflies, including Southern Grizzled Skipper, Small Blue, Mazarine Blue and False Heath Fritillary:

[David M]

Hesperiidae

1. Mallow Skipper
2. Marbled Skipper
3. Dingy Skipper
4. Large Skipper
5. Essex Skipper
6. Small Skipper
7. Lulworth Skipper
8. Large Grizzled Skipper
9. Alpine Grizzled Skipper
10. Safflower Skipper
11. Oberthur's Grizzled Skipper
12. Rosy Grizzled Skipper
13. Southern Grizzled Skipper
14. Olive Skipper
15. Red Underwing Skipper

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Coppers and Hairstreaks

Scarce Copper aside, the range was actually quite decent - it was just numbers that were lacking.

Within the Hairstreak group, things were even poorer numbers-wise, with no False Ilex seen, very few Ilex & Blue Spot and only a handful of Sloe Hairstreaks, such as this one:

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Coppers and Hairstreaks

16. Purple-Shot Copper
17. Purple-Edged Copper
18. Small Copper
19. Sooty Copper
20. Green Hairstreak
21. Purple Hairstreak
22. Spanish Purple Hairstreak
23. Sloe Hairstreak
24. Ilex Hairstreak
25. Blue-Spot Hairstreak

[David M]

Lycaenidae - Blues

Generally very poor, although we did find Mountain Alcon Blue as well as Alpine, Glandon & Chequered Blues.

26. Brown Argus
27. Mountain Argus
28. Geranium Argus
29. Holly Blue
30. Small Blue
31. Mazarine Blue
32. Green Underside Blue
33. Lang's Short Tailed Blue
34. Long Tailed Blue
35. Mountain Alcon Blue
36. Large Blue
37. Silver Studded Blue
38. Glandon Blue
39. Alpine Blue
40. Amanda's Blue
41. Adonis Blue
42. Chalkhill Blue
43. Turquoise Blue
44. Eros Blue
45. Escher's Blue
46. Common Blue
47. Chapman's Blue
48. Baton Blue
49. Chequered Blue

Others in the group also found Geranium Bronze and Osiris Blue.

[David M]

Pieridae

The biggest shock was the complete absence of Mountain Clouded Yellows, which are usually around in serious numbers.

Berger's Clouded Yellows were about though:

Just the one Peak White seen, though there were quite a few Mountain Dappled Whites near Col Agnel. We also had a glut of Mountain Green Veined Whites, including many females, at a riverside location a few kilometres down from the Refuge d'Agnel.

[David M]

Pieridae

50. Orange Tip
51. Black Veined White
52. Berger's Clouded Yellow
53. Clouded Yellow
54. Mountain Dappled White
55. Peak White
56. Cleopatra
57. Brimstone
58. Wood White
59. Large White
60. Mountain Green Veined White
61. Green Veined White
62. Small White
63. Bath White

[David M]

Papilionidae

Scarce Swallowtails were extremely poor in number - I don't think I even got to double figures!

Apollos weren't much better, with only one site seeing more than two or three of them.

So, it was quite a surprise to see over a dozen Small Apollos at a riverside site not far from Refuge d'Agnel. This one very kindly came down on a rock:

A few elderly Clouded Apollos were also seen.

[David M]

Papilionidae

64. Scarce Swallowtail
65. Southern Swallowtail
66. Swallowtail
67. Apollo
68. Small Apollo
69. Clouded Apollo