La Douce France - June 2016 - part IV

In the start of my trip, before I got to the Vaucluse, I passed at a low valley at the northern side of the Alps where Coenonympha oedippus still has some populations. This is a species of wet hay fields and marshes and because of agricultural intensification since WWII it has lost lots of its former distribution. In France it has still some populations in the west near the Atlantic coast but also in some valleys at the N edge of the Alps. When I was there butterflies were already a bit abraded with a lot of females on the wing so over the peak of the flight period. The location was very wet (two of the paths I selected beforehand on google earth had some 30cm of water on them...) and I had to search for a way to get in the right habitat but after some time I was able to get to a nice location where I easily found some 20 butterflies. This species is considered as endangered (EN) on the IUCN red list and is listed on the Habitats Directive Annexes 2 and 4 and Bern Convention Annex 2.

Coenonympha oedippus, female

From the Alpine butterflies a few I still hadn't seen after several trips to the Alps. Two of them especially attracted my interest. Two species that fly a bit lower and/or have the peak in their flight period a bit earlier. So when returning from Corsica I wanted to focus on those two species.
First I went to the region of Col d'Allos to search for Euchloe simplonia. I easily found several individuals and could get nice pics of one of them.

Euchloe simplonia

At the same location I saw some other nice species:

Lycaena tityrus, male of the alpine form subalpinus lacking orange tones on the upperside, compare with the Belgian lowland males on one of my previous blogposts

Aricia eumedon playing hide-and-seek on a flower of its larval foodplant, Geranium species

Coenonympha (gardetta) darwiniana, nowadays mostly considered as a subspecies of Coenonympha gardetta replacing it at the more southern slopes but in the past sometimes considered as a species on its own or as a stable hybrid population between Coenonympha gardetta and Coenonympha arcania.

Erebia triaria, the first time I saw this species was at the Col d'Allos as well but then it was an abraded individual early august and at 2400m and this for an early species mostly to be found between 400-2200m! When I saw it early august it was however in 2013, a year with spring everywhere in Europe starting very late what probably caused that individual to be still on the wing that late. So I was happy to see the species again, a bit fresher and more in its normal flight period.

Phengaris arion

The second species I wanted to see was Euphydryas intermedia. Although I had some exact GPS-locations from the data portal observation.org I decided to search in another valley, mentioned in the earlier mentioned ecological guide of Lafranchis, the Névache valley. And with succes! I found several individuals, some already abraded so probably already on the wing for some time.

 

Euphydryas intermedia

Habitat of Euphydryas intermedia

Other species I got on picture at this location:

In Névache it was the nominate of Coenonympha gardetta flying around

Lasiommata petropolitana, male

La Douce France - June 2016 - part III

This part is all about Corsican endemics. I was on Corsica once before second half of July to see the endemic birds, my interest in butterflies however was then still limited to Belgian butterflies. I had however seen some of the endemic butterflies; Hipparchia neomiris, Hipparchia aristaeus and Coenonympha corinna.
So lots of endemics were still left for me!
An overview of endemic species on Corsica & Sardinia:

Endemic species	Corsica	Sardinia	Elba
Papilio hospiton	x	x
Euchloe insularis	x	x
Pseudophilotes barbagiae		x
Plebejus argus corsicus	x
Plebejus bellieri	x	x
Plebejus bellieri villai			x
Polyommatus (coridon) nufrellensis	x
Polyommatus (coridon) gennargenti		x
Aglais (urticae) ichnusa	x	x
Argynnis elisa	x	x
Hipparchia aristaeus	x	x	x
Hipparchia neomiris	x	x	x
Maniola nurag		x
Coenonympha corinna	x	x
Coenonympha (corinna) elbana			x
Lasiommata paramegera	x	x
Spialia therapne	x	x

As being there still at the end of June for some species I was fairly late (Euchloe insularis for example, I saw one probable flying but could not get a closer look...) or I was too early (Polyommatus (coridon) nufrellensis only starts flying from second decade of July; Hipparchia neomiris I missed on this trip although some were already flying around during my stay, when you visit Corsica later in July this species is difficult to miss). About all other species flying on Corsica I could get a glimpse off.

Papilio hospiton

Late june is still a good period to see this species when you visit the higher stations. I saw the species at Haut Asco (1-3 individuals) and at Col de Sorba (10-15 individuals). I kept an eye open to see if I could find individuals with intermediate characters with Papilio machaon as hybridisation often occurs but I only saw specimens that phenotypically were typical P. hospiton. This species is most easily found by its hilltopping behaviour where males hold territorium on high points in the landscape, so just get to a high mountain top (for example east of Col de Sorba) and you shouldn't miss it.

 

Papilio hospiton

Plebejus (argus) corsicus

According to genetic research this taxon is now mostly considered as a subspecies of Plebejus argus although they look very specific with the black spots on underside of the wings with a greyish hue. I saw this species at Haut-Asco in great number

Plebejus (argus) corsicus, copula, female on the left

Plebejus (argus) corsicus, 2 males

Plebejus (argus) corsicus, male

Plebejus bellieri

This species was long considered as a subspecies of Plebejus idas but nowadays is mostly considered as a species on its own. I saw them in good numbers (less common than Plebejus (argus) corsicus) at Haut-Asco. For both species flight period had just begun at this height, almost all of the specimens I saw were fresh. Easily recognised by the black dots at the hindwing margin.

 

Plebejus bellieri, male upper and underside

Underside picture on the presumed larval foodplant Genista species

Aglais (urticae) ichnusa

Although still recognised as a species on fauna europaea recent genetic research indicates that it should probably be regarded as a subspecies of Aglais urticae. Second half of June is a good period to find this sometimes elusive taxon. It is the period when the flight period of the offspring of the wintering generation starts. Species of the genera Aglais, Vanessa and Nymphalis are well known to swarm out directly after emergence. A good tactic to find Aglais (urticae) ichnusa is to post at high location above tree line and wandering specimens will use these locations to get a rest before moving further on. I saw the taxon at Haut-Asco and at Col de Sorba.

Aglais (urticae) ichnusa

Argynnis elisa

This species is most related to Argynnis aglaja. It starts its flight period end of June so I was lucky to find some specimens at Haut-Asco.

Argynnis elisa

Hipparchia aristaeus

One of the several cryptic Hipparchia species in the Mediterranean area, no look-a-likes are present on the island. North of Corte the species was already on the wing in small numbers.

Hipparchia aristaeus

Coenonympha corinna

A fairly common species at lots of natural locations, less in cultivated areas.

Coenonympha corinna, showing some variation in spots on underside hindwing

Lasiommata paramegera

Although very common a difficult species to get on picture as they are very active. It is unclear to me what the status is of the Balearic Lasiommata species, in some literature it is stated that Lasiommata paramegera is present on the Balearics as well, other literature place the brightly patterned Balearic butterflies in Lasiommata megaera. If someone can inform me with the present status of the Balearic Lasiommata butterflies I would be very interested.

Lasiommata paramegera, female

Lasiommata paramegera, male

Lasiommata paramegera, underside

Spialia therapne

I was a bit afraid to be in between generations for this species, fortunately I found the species at 2 locations, for the second location I was tipped and I could get nice pics on that location.

Spialia therapne

La Douce France - June 2016 - part II

In the south of France I visited several locations in 2 separate regions. First I watched butterflies for 2 days on the edge of the Drôme and the Vaucluse in calcareous mountaineous areas (550-1500m). Then I moved on to the south to lower areas on the edge of the Bouches-du-Rhône and the Var (400-700m).

During my whole trip I controlled Melitaea species from the athalia-group on male genitalia according the method explained in the Lafranchis-guide, all males depicted on picture here are controlled with a 20X loupe. In the Drôme-Vaucluse area I was happy to find 3 different species.

Melitaea (athalia) nevadensis (=celadussa), male

According to the recent work on the genus Melitaea by Coutsis & Van Oorschot the southern morph of Melitaea athalia should be regarded as a separate species and the valid name should be nevadensis instead of the often used celadussa. This was definitely the most common Melitaea to find, nevadensis in the south and athalia s.s. in the north (see part I).

Melitaea deione, male

In an abandoned S-faced quarry I found a small population of M. deione.

In a more humid valley I found several Melitaea parthenoides. Two males in upper pic, a female in the lower pic.

The more easy to recognize Melitaea didyma was present at lots of locations as well.

Two males Melitaea didyma

Another nice Fritillary species to see was Euphydryas aurinia of the Provencal subspecies provincialis. A few late ones at approx 1000m. A nice overview of the several French subspecies of Euphydryas aurinia can be found on the website of Lafranchis as a sample page of Lafranchis' recent ecological guide here.

I can only advise any one withe a good interest in ecology of European butterflies to buy this guide, although it is a bit pricey, I believe it is worth the price. It is a very descent work with lots of nice photographs and good information on ecology of all French butterfly species. If someone would doubt between the new fieldguide and the more expensive ecological guide I would certainly advise to buy the ecological guide.

Euphydryas aurinia provincialis

A nice species to find were some late specimens of Melanargia occitanica, a species I hadn't seen before

Melanargia occitanica

By controlling Brassicaceae on a regular base I found several caterpillars of Euchloe crameri, one of the southern spring whites

Euchloe crameri

I was surprised to find some colonies of Polyommatus hispanus still thriving after half of June, I would have expected to be in between spring and summer generation but at one location I found a population of several hundred of individuals from clearly abraded to nearly fresh. I would not be surprised if the latest individuals of spring generation would be still on the wing when summer generation starts to emerge...

Polyommatus hispanus, 3 males & 1 female

At the same location I saw some individuals of one of the nicest Heath species Coenonympha dorus

Coenonympha dorus

In the Bouches-du-Rhône/Var area my main target was to see Laeosopis roboris. The main flight period of this butterfly is a bit earlier than the periods when I have visited its distribution so this time I wanted to search for it specifically. And with success, I saw the species at 3 locations.

Laeosopis roboris

Another nice species to see in France was Brenthis hecate, a species with a limited distribution in France:

Brenthis hecate

In the previous part you could read about Hipparchia (hermione) genava, this is however a male of the related and very similar species Hipparchia fagi:

Hipparchia fagi

One of the least expected species of the trip was Polyommatus dolus. I had seen this species in the same region in august and flight period is mostly described as starting half of July. So a nice surprise to find a freshly emerged female just past half of June. A nice white fringe to upperside of both front and hind wing and a very vague pale central stripe are the features to tell this one apart from Polyommatus ripartii.

Polyommatus dolus, female

More on Corsican endemics in the next episode