www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Hi all,

I'm back from a great week in Kos. Before I write my blog, can you guys check on my id's.

Very pleased with this one, although a bit grainy due to a 800 ISO to get the 1/2000 speed needed.
Swallowtail


Scarce Swallowtail


Eastern Bath White?


Long tailed Blue?


Lesser Fiery Copper
Female


Male


Langs Short tailed Blue?


Southern Comma


At first I thought that this was a Common Blue, but it was smaller and the wrong color wings. Any ideas?


And lots of these ? skippers.


I have loads of photos still to sort through, but I thought that these would make a good start.

Cheers
Denise

Wow! Didn't you do well.
Mallow skipper looks a good match for the hesperid: http://www.butterfly-guide.co.uk/specie ... /bret6.htm

I think it's actually a Tufted Marbled Skipper. The white marks on the hindwing discal (mid) area are the clue - Mallow Skipper doesn't have these. Here's a photo I got a couple of days ago.

Tufties are considered quite uncommon generally in Europe, so you've started with the difiicult species! Not to mention the Southern Comma!

Thanks for that Roger. I have posted a few skipper pics on the ID section. I'm not sure that they are all the same species.

Kos trip report on my blog at http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB2/b ... 1337&b=214

Cheers
Denise

Great stuff, Denise! Your log of the trip is fantastic reading too.

It's very hard to identify blues just on an underside hindwing, because this can be so variable. The underside forewing is useful to show whether or not there is a cell spot and obviously the upperside helps. But the unidentified blue above does show the white 'wedge' in spaces 3 and 4, which narrows things down a little. It can't be Plebeius, for example. Common blue is a possibility, but if it didn't look like the local common blues in colour and size (common blue is extremely variable, so it's useful to refer to local populations) it could well be Escher's blue. In general appearance it looks good for Escher's (if you have any upperside shots, even bad ones, it is easy to check for Escher's, with its half-chequering and light cell lines). If you haven't, we might never know!

Roger's skipper is definitely tufted marbled but if you compare those cell marks with yours you can see that yours is clearly mallow (Roger, mallow skipper in Switzerland frequently has prominent white spots on the uph and Tim has sent me pictures from France with the same spots).

Guy

I think this could be the same butterfly. It flew while I was checking my shots.



Local Common Blue for comparison.



Also saw these two nearby.





Any ideas? I know that they are not very good shots but fingers crossed. X

Cheers
Denise

Well! It's tricky, isn't it?

If that is the same blue it still looks good for escheri, but there's nothing absolutely definitive there to say it's not common blue. The black lines running in from the margins are typical escheri, but can be found in common. The light isn't illuminating the escheri 'antlers' but I have plenty of pictures where they don't show, like this one (last week):



The half-chequering looks good for escheri, but again, common blue can have this and the marginal line on your butterfly is very narrow.

The next picture, of a female, looks like a common blue to me. The last picture, also of a female, lacks an obvious cell spot but isn't escheri - could be Chapman's, which flies in the general area (you might find a complete list of the butterflies of Kos rules out Chapman's or Escher's - islands often don't have all the butterflies of a region). This is a female Escher's, again last week:



Once you have experience of them, Escher's blue and Chapman's blue are easy in the field, when you can examine all sides and angles. But it can be infuriatingly hard from photos! You might just have to go back to Kos next year...

Guy

EDIT - Ah, I didn't notice that common blue for comparison! It doesn't have nearly so marked black lines running in on the forewing, nor any half-chequering - so still looking good for Escher's...