Matsukaze

[Matsukaze]

I've never been very good at keeping this diary up to date - I never did get round to writing up the second half of our Provencal holiday last year. As it was this time last year, now seems a good moment to try to catch up. I don't have my notes to hand so commentary will be a bit sparse, I'm afraid.

22 June
Can anyone help ID the fritillary?

Fritillary somewhere in lowland Provence

Grooger the Frog

23 June
In the 1960s the Black Hairstreak was recorded from the cliffs at Pont-de-Garruby where the road crossed the Verdon on the Var/Alpes de Haute-Provence border. The bridge and road disappeared in the early 1970s when the reservoir was constructed, but the cliffs still remain, far harder of access now than they were then. I made the questionable decision to try seeing if there was still suitable habitat there, clambering around in temperatures above 36C. In truth I could not tell one way or the other, as there were sufficient oaks and similar around to restrict visibility to a few metres. I had lunch beside a wetland where great crested grebes were making unearthly growling noises, and butterflies were visiting the mud for salts. The Lesser Emperor seems to be not uncommon around the shores of the lake where the shore is not precipitous and willows/poplars can establish. I found it at several places.

Painted Ladies were on migration, a steady stream of them flying from east to west; this was a constant theme of the rest of the holiday.

Nettle-tree butterfly

Lesser Purple Emperor

[Matsukaze]

24 June

In an attempt to get cool, we headed high into the hills, to a spot in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence well known for its butterflies. There were plenty of them! One patch of thyme attracted a small cloud of Mellicta fritillaries, which would not let each other settle. ID help with the fritillaries and the Erebia (3 photos of the same insect) would be appreciated (roughly 1200-1500 metres altitude).

Fritillary in meadow

Beetle

Ageing Duke of Burgundy

Fritillaries

Fritillaries

Sooty Copper

Sooty Copper

Small Blue nectaring on vanilla flavour kidney vetch

Mazarine Blue

Painted Lady nectaring on raspberry ripple flavour kidney vetch

Orsini's Viper - Europe's smallest snake

Erebia sp.

Erebia sp.

Erebia sp.

Fritillary sp.

Male Common Blues

[Matsukaze]

25 June
The Golden City of the Fritillaries

This patch of yellow composites attracted seven species of fritillary, some in good numbers.

Queen of Spain, Knapweed, Weaver's, Niobe, Silver-washed, Marbled, and one Mellicta I could not identify.

Niobe Fritillary

Mellicta sp.

Escher's Blue

helice?

helice?

26 June

When people from Marseille express nervousness at the oncoming heatwave, you listen. We decided to relocate in a hurry, trying to find somewhere as far up a mountain as we could, and spent the day travelling to the Aosta valley in Italy. I balked at the thought at trying to negotiate the Turin ring road without a map in temperatures of 42 C, so we ended up on a very winding journey north through Alpine valleys and over a variety of passes. This included the highest road pass in Europe, the Col de l'Iseran, where it was evident that the snow had only just melted - there was still plenty of it about and the freshly-exposed grass was still sodden and had yet to take on any green. Astonishingly, there were butterflies up here; migrating Painted Ladies, and a resident species, Erebia pandrose (Dewy Ringlet?). The moth is on the British list, from a few locations in the Highlands.

Broad-bordered White Underwing

On the way down, a beast I initially mistook for a small dog, then a beaver, ran in front of us - our first marmot.

[Wurzel]

Great set of reports Matsukaze I'll probably embarass myself totally with my identifications but I'll have a go...In the first 'Fritillaries' photo 2 posts ago (after aging Duke) I reckon the one in the middle with wings open is a Meadow Frit I reckon the most recent Mellicta sp is a Provencal there seem to be orange spots in the lunules ? Finally I reckon the Cloudy isn't a helice but a male Berger's (it isn't as two-tone, yellow and white, like a Helice and the fore wing is more rounded and less shark fin than a Pale Cloudy)...I await corrections for all of these but at least I had a go

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

You did right to travel to altitude, Chris. There was one day in late June when the temperature exceeded 100 degrees even in Rimplas which is at 1,050m!! Goodness knows what it was like near sea level.

In your post before last the first Fritillary looks suspiciously like a female Provençal and I fancy the erebia is Piedmont Ringlet. In the last post I would say you're definitely right regarding Dewy Ringlet.

[Matsukaze]

27 June 2019 - Aosta and the Great St Bernard Pass

We spent much of the day resting, but I always have to look around a new place and see what butterflies were about. In this case there was a Queen of Spain fritillary nectaring on a viper's bugloss type plant, but the most interesting thing was finding a cluster of bladder senna bushes, with the seed-pods well out. It was too late for Iolas Blues, but I remembered that Guy used to find them just the other side of the mountain in Switzerland and I wondered...

Later that afternoon we went up the mountain as far as the Swiss frontier at the top. Sara paddled in the lake, which was still partially covered by ice. On the way back down we stopped off for butterflies, finding among other things small cluster of mud-puddling blues. Alpine Heath and Geranium Argus were new to me. The latter were not behaving themselves; they were well away from their foodplant, though the next day I was to find them acting more traditionally.

Sooty Copper

Alpine Heath

Geranium Argus

Geranium Argus

Geranium Argus and ??

Mazarine Blue

[David M]

There's potential for your Geranium Argus partner (?) to be Osiris Blue, Chris, although it could equally be Small Blue. Did you get a glimpse of the uppersides? It's not Mazarine.

[Matsukaze]

Hi David, most likely Small Blue, as there were Small and Mazarine present but I didn't notice Osiris. I made the mistake of not noting immediately afterwards what I had photographed at the time.

[David M]

Hi David, most likely Small Blue, as there were Small and Mazarine present but I didn't notice Osiris. I made the mistake of not noting immediately afterwards what I had photographed at the time.

I do that regularly, Chris so no worries.

Probably was minimus as in my experience Osiris is generally not around in July in southern France.

[Matsukaze]

28 June 2019 - Grand St Bernard Pass (Swiss side)

The next day we went over the top of the pass and into Switzerland - the last time I had been there I was far too young to be identifying butterflies (though old enough to know what snakes were - it was the first time I had seen one). The first 'lep' I saw was a Small Tortoiseshell basking on one of the concrete bunker-type installations that line the road on the way down from the top of the pass. The first new species of the day came at an unpromising, scruffy stretch of verge further down, where a Northern Wall Brown fluttered and perched just too far away for a satisfactory photo. A Geranium Argus did what Geranium Arguses are supposed to do, resting in the flower of the foodplant. I then saw what my notes describe as 'Alpine Clouded Yellow', presumably phicomone:

At the same place was an uncooperative Erebia, perhaps Arran Brown or Scotch Argus:

Our original notion had been to try to drive to Martigny for lunch, but the heat was oppressive and the countryside becoming increasingly manicured, so halfway down we turned off the main road and settled down for a picnic next to an extremely steep, flower-rich bank. Of course there were butterflies - a brief appearance from a fritillary (Pearl-bordered perhaps, but on 28 June?), a fly-by from an Apollo, and a dark butterfly which came down the bank several times to taunt me before flying back somewhere I could not follow. At the time I thought it was an Erebia but my photo showed it to be something else - a Great Sooty Satyr.

On returning back near the top of the pass we stopped off by the side of a stream where a sheltered corner proved good for butterflies - Grizzled SKipper, Small Blue, Mazarine Blue, Chequered Skipper (a first for me) and Green Hairstreak. The highlight was a fly-by from a Camberwell Beauty, which I chased until it disappeared over a cliff, and I had just about enough sense remaining not to follow. At above 2000 m, I presume this Argus is artaxerxes:

At the top of the pass we watched the dogs from St. Bernard's refuge being exercised and paddling in the water, and then returned to Italy.

[Wurzel]

Cracking range of species Matsukaze - I'd love to get to the Alps Could the Fritillary have been a Small Pearl rather than a Pearl as the do have a second brood on the continent? Also just a long shot but could the blue with the Geranium Argus have been a Holly Blue?

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

Nice to see a few continental species, Chris.

I'm sure your Frit is Pearl Bordered (clear floating triangles visible on the ups). I often see this species well into July at altitude in the French Alps (alongside Orange Tips) so late June is well within their flight period.

I agree with Great Sooty Satyr (can't be Black Satyr that far north), but your Erebia looks to probably be Piedmont Ringlet rather than what you suggested. The unh spots and lack of white fringe are what make me err towards meolans, although I have learned (from Roger & Guy) that other erebia have forms that exhibit these spots where the nominal form does not (adyte if I'm not mistaken).

[Matsukaze]

Cracking range of species Matsukaze - I'd love to get to the Alps Could the Fritillary have been a Small Pearl rather than a Pearl as the do have a second brood on the continent? Also just a long shot but could the blue with the Geranium Argus have been a Holly Blue?

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Thanks - hopefully I'll be back in 2021... I didn't think it was SPBF, as the site was dry grassland and SPBF seems to like it wet - I just had no idea what the other options are that we don't get in the UK.

[Matsukaze]

Nice to see a few continental species, Chris.

I'm sure your Frit is Pearl Bordered (clear floating triangles visible on the ups). I often see this species well into July at altitude in the French Alps (alongside Orange Tips) so late June is well within their flight period.

I agree with Great Sooty Satyr (can't be Black Satyr that far north), but your Erebia looks to probably be Piedmont Ringlet rather than what you suggested. The unh spots and lack of white fringe are what make me err towards meolans, although I have learned (from Roger & Guy) that other erebia have forms that exhibit these spots where the nominal form does not (adyte if I'm not mistaken).

Thanks David! I have a long way to go still with the Erebias.

[Wurzel]

Just had another look and managed to remember how to zoom in on internet explorer - you were right first time it's a Pearl - 'duck face' marking and flying chevrons visible on the wing margins when you actually look rather than glance

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

Thanks David! I have a long way to go still with the Erebias.

Me too, Chris. Whilst they're not quite as bad as the pyrgus genus, the fact that there are so many isolated populations around the higher mountains of Europe means that local forms abound and unless you are familiar with them, it can be quite a shock to see a form far removed from the one with which you are familiar. The degree of variation is quite unlike any other group, IMO.

[Matsukaze]

There's no immediate prospects of butterflies here, but I'm thinking ahead in terms of planting the garden for butterflies - a very long way ahead in the case of the bladder-senna Colutea arborescens seeds that I've just sown in the propagator, which might be attracting butterflies by around 2025. I am hoping they might serve as a replacement for the difficult-to-prune garden holly as foodplant for the Holly Blues that pass through the garden every year, and maybe if I am very lucky attract a migrant Long-tailed Blue one day. I have more immediate hopes for the maroon kidney vetch Anthyllis vulneraria variety that I have also sown, and the various brassicas and scabious species. The Androsace species I am also trying to germinate, however, is sadly unlikely to attract any examples of the blue butterflies that use it as foodplant in the higher reaches of the Alps.

[David M]

Nothing amiss with a little speculative planting, Chris. If nothing else, it's always interesting to see a native species laying on something that isn't its acknowledged host plant. I wish you luck with that.

I reckon next week is ripe for the first butterflies. Looks pretty serene from Tuesday onwards, although those fortunate enough to live in the far south east may get a little action sooner than that.

[Matsukaze]

Thanks David - it'll be interesting to see what happens. The Holly Blues round here seem fairly traditional in their ways, investigating the holly and the ivy, though I've never seen them actually egg-laying or found the early stages. They also flutter round and perch on the laurels in our neighbour's gardens that overhang, and it wouldn't surprise me if they breed on that - but they take no notice of our banks of winter-flowering heather, which is a documented foodplant of theirs.

I've also been trying to grow buckthorn and bilberry from cuttings (something I am not very good at). Brimstones fly through most years, and it would be good to give them a reason to stay. I am trying the bilberry so I can eat the berries, but I suppose there is the faint possibility of Green Hairstreak, which I very occasionally see in the area though certainly not in the garden.

We've got very tentative plans to spend a week in early June out your way on Gower. I'm thinking about moth-hunting in the main, but also wondering if the moorland fritillaries will still be out at that time, as it's many years since I've seen either SPBF or Marsh Fritillary.

[David M]

We've got very tentative plans to spend a week in early June out your way on Gower. I'm thinking about moth-hunting in the main, but also wondering if the moorland fritillaries will still be out at that time, as it's many years since I've seen either SPBF or Marsh Fritillary.

Last year was an early season, Chris, and there were still SPBFs around in the second week of June, albeit faded. In a normal year, I'd expect Marshies to emerge around 21st May, with a peak around 1st June, tailing off to disappear around 14th, so if you are around during that period, you ought to see both species and I will give you a map with my prime hotspots for them.