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NEWSLETTER No. 11 -  Summer 1984

WEST MIDLANDS BRANCH, BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION

 

Identity Problems in Southern France

Serious mapping of French Lepidoptera began rather later than in Great Britain and the vastness of the terrain will ensure that the task will be a long one, but at the same time, full of surprises. Many regions are relatively unexplored, often because of their sheer inaccessibility, whereas others although well-known and frequently visited, nevertheless offer to the visitor all kinds of entomological treats.

I first started looking at butterflies in France in a fairly desultory way in the late 1940s and then more seriously from 1963 when I first visited Haute Provence and in particular the area around Forcalquier and the Montagne de Lure. Higher up the Durance valley lies Digne, one of Europe's entomological capitals and well known since the latter half of the nineteenth century.

I want to write mainly about two areas - the valley of the Drome, which enters the Rhone below Valence; and the valley of the Tarn between Montauban and Albi. By way of conclusion, some scattered notes from Provence and the Cevennes will provide a glimpse of a different range of insects.

The valley of the Drome represents a crucial zone of overlap between northern and southern species and in the region of Die in an area perhaps two-thirds the size of Warwickshire, 148 butterflies have been recorded, which include alpine, sub-alpine, temperate lowland species and Mediterranean species at the north of their range.

I paid two visits to the Drome in 1983, in May and in August. After appalling weather in regions further north, in France and Switzerland from late April to the third week in May, the good weather started and butterflies became abundant. On the small limestone hills above Crest (some forty kilometres or so west of Die) nineteen species were on the wing on the 18th May, including the Green Underside Blue, Adonis Blue, Small Blue, Large Wall Brown, Spotted, Meadow, Marsh, Pearl-Bordered, and Violet Fritillaries, Swallowtail, Scarce Swallowtail, Moroccan Orange Tip (Belia), Bath White and Wood White. In addition, one was surrounded by great stands of Monkey, Military, Lady, Man and Early Purple Orchids together with others which do not occur in Britain. Inside the oak woods there was little in flight except the large day flying moth Agliathan, which was one of the few Lepidoptera I had seen in the preceding weeks of cold, rainy weather. At the woodland edges, the Duke of Burgundy and Holly Blue were much in evidence.

I missed a chance to see the Spanish Festoon which should have been on the wing higher up the valley beyond and I was too early for the Southern Swallowtail, which has some ten localities in the area. There are twenty-two Fritillaries to be found in the region and fourteen Erebia (Ringlet) species are recorded in the mountainous country beyond Die.

After the 25th May I moved further south to the Mount Ventoux district, another of France's fabulous butterfly areas, but the mistral and cool, cloudy weather persuaded most butterflies to remain dormant.

By the 30th May I had reached Villemur-sur-Tarn where, in the park of a private estate I have recorded forty-one species, most of them (thirty-six) in a period of four days in early August 1981. On this visit in early June 1983 I found nineteen species on the wing. This was in Cotswold type limestone grassland and the fringes of the neighbouring oak woods. Both the Swallowtails were in evidence together with Wood White, Southern White Admiral, Knapweed and Meadow Fritillaries. Sooty Copper, Provencal Short-Tailed Blue, Brown Argus, and Dingy and Grizzled Skippers. Most interesting were the numbers of day-flying Four-spotted moths and the Spotted Sulphur, both of them rarities in Britain, the latter gone or almost gone from the Breckland.

Later at the end of August, the Lesser Purple Emperor, the Map, Heath Fritillary, Queen of Spain Fritillary and a probable Chapman's Blue (very difficult to separate from Common Blue in the field) were added to the list.

I returned to the Drome valley on 13th August and made my base in Crest again. I found a damaged Reverdin's Blue by the roadside in the town of Die, a scarce butterfly in the district.

Clouded and Pale Clouded Yellows were widespread and the three large Fritillaries, Silver-washed, Dark Green, and Niobe were frequently encountered. The Silver-spotted Skipper was on the wing with a second brood of the Dingy. The High Brown Fritillary made an appearance and the Heath and Meadow Fritillaries were flying with some five species of Grayling. By the riverside I found the pale form of the Lesser Purple Emperor (f. clytie) among the tall willows and the Dryad was encountered scattered through the dry scrubland and on the banks behind the shingle beds.

An ascent by bus to the Col de Cabre (1180m) proved to be a good choice. Within two hours walking on a forestry track I had seen twenty-five species including the Apollo and the two Erebias - Autumn Ringlet and Scotch Argus. The Damon Blue was abundant as was the Chalkhill Blue and the Spanish Chalkhill Blue. After watching Silver-washed, Dark Green and High Brown Fritillaries visiting various thistles I came across a solitary male Brown Hairstreak which flew off and was not seen again. A late Blue-spot Hairstreak appeared for a while, sunning itself on a stony bank. Whites I thought were Mountain Small Whites (Ergane) proved to be Southern Small Whites (Mannii ).

The southern limit of the Striped Grayling, which resembles the Tree Grayling, is found just south of Die but I was not fortunate enough to see it. The Purple Emperor reaches its southern limit here also, together with Ripart's Anomalous Blue. The Nettle Tree butterfly on the other hand is at its northern limit some twenty kilometres south of Crest.

At the very end of August I revisited the Cevennes in the region of Le Vigan, where some years ago I was astonished to encounter three Two-tailed Pashas flying round a riverside ash tree. Its foodplant, the Strawberry tree, was nowhere in evidence nor did the locality seem a likely place for it. French lepidopterists however have recently found another foodplant, the laurel (Laurus nobilis). Unfortunately on this occasion the weather was poor with little sun and I did not record a single butterfly during my very brief stay.

A visit to Boulbon in Les Montagnettes between Avignon and Tarascon uncovered good colonies of Glanville Fritillaries, Spanish Chalkhill Blues, Silver-spotted Skippers and the Baton Blue.

To the non-collector problems of identification abound. In many cases only a captured dead specimen can be certainly determined, where uppersides and undersides need to be seen and studied at leisure. The camera is the halfway house, but in the case of many ringlets graylings and a few blues and fritillaries difficulties still remain. A proportion of my sightings therefore remain unresolved. Again there is conflict among the books available. The following is a list of those I have used.

1. LE CERF - Lepidopteres de France. Editions Boubee 1972.
2. BJORN DAL -  The Butterflies of Northern Europe. Croom Helm 1978.
3. DEVARENNE -  Guide des Papillons. Duculot 1983. (There is now an English language version of this).
4. HIGGINS & RILEY -  A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe. Collins 1970.
5. HIGGINS, HARGREAVES -  The Butterflies of Britain and Europe. Collins 1983.
6. WATSON - Butterflies of Britain and Europe. Kingfisher 1981.
7. WHALLEY - Butterflies. Hamlyn 1979.
8. WHALLEY -  The Mitchell Beazley pocket guide to Butterflies.

Of these DAL (2) and WHALLEY (8) are without doubt the best for use in the field, but unfortunately the former only covers Northern Europe. Richard Lewington's illustrations in WHALLEY (8) are infinitely superior to those of Hargreaves in (4) and (5). WHALLEY (7) includes wrong information and shows photographs of uppersides where undersides would be more helpful. DEVARENNE (3) shows too few species and the photographs can be criticised for the same reasons as WHALLEY (7). WATSON (6) which uses both drawings and photographs is a lot better than it appears (and is cheap at £1.95) and can be used as a back-up to WHALLEY (8) and DAL (2). LE CERF (1) omits too many species and is sometimes inconclusive in its illustrations. HIGGINS (5) is easier to use than HIGGINS & RILEY (4) but Hargreaves' illustrations still pose real problems.

There are remarkable divergences on distribution, periods of emergence, number of broods and even types of habitat from book to book. Further complications are met concerning altitudes and foodplants.

I use WHALLEY (8), DAL (2) and WATSON (6) in the field, and I refer to others for occasional back-up. A new larger format version of WHALLEY (8) is now available at a higher price but is not,, I think, an improvement.

WHALLEYS, DAL and WATSON represents a total sum of £11.85 at present prices. The three of them together weigh little more than HIGGINS & RILEY (4).