Photos from a quick trip to Cinque Terre

[Painted Jezebel]

The Geranium Bronze fascinated me as it is not mentioned in my 'bible' of European butterflies, though it does date back to 1970.

This species is originally from South Africa and Mozambique. It was first found in Europe (Balearic Islands) in 1990, and only came to Italy (Sardinia) in 1996. It has since slowly moved northwards, coming to Tuscany in 2006. It has spread as it is a serious pest of the very popular cultivated geraniums, and has even been found in the UK (1997, and a few occasions since).

[Painted Jezebel]

A couple of ID corrections required, sorry!

1)Your Common Blues (Polyommatus icarus) are actually the Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)
2) The Blue is the real Polyommatus icarus.
3) The White Admiral is the Southern White Admiral (Limenitis reducta). The hindwing basal white markings are a give-away, as is the forewing end-cell white spot and the underside hindwing single row of marginal spots.

[moloch]

Thanks for the information about the Bronze, Les. I saw these little blues on Geraniums, Hydrangas as well as on other plants up in the hills. They were quite common.

Thanks also for the corrections to the identifications. My source for the names is the following website: http://www.leps.it/

[moloch]

Lang's Short-tailed Blue (Leptotes pirithus)



Small White (Pieris rapae)



The most common butterfly in the hills was the following. Speckled Woods (Pararge aegeria)





Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera). I saw this species on two occasions.

[moloch]

Fritillaries were common in the hills but I rarely saw them land. Silver-washed Fritillaries (Argynnis paphia)





Skippers were surprisingly scarce. I only saw two species and only one of each.

Mallow Skipper (Carcharodus alceae)



Damselfly



Strange flightless cricket that lived in the pine-oak belt:



Wall lizards were numerous. There are several similar species that live here and I have not yet identified these with certainty.

[moloch]

That's all from Cinque Terre.

[Painted Jezebel]

David, you can get rid of any doubts, all correct!

The LeptotEs (note spelling) species is not rare, but I never came across it during my many visits to the Med, shame.

It is interesting to see the southern subspecies of Pararge aegeria, P. a. aegeria. In the UK we had the northern one, P. a. tircis, where the orange markings are replaced by pale cream in colour.

[WillFolsom]

David: Here are a couple of shots i took in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia a few years back. Hope that helps a bit. Looks like you had a great time. You do manage to get some nice shots on your vacations! William

[moloch]

Thanks for all your help, Les. I only saw a couple Leptotes in the pine-oak habitat above Corniglia. They were more common, however, in the park that is located near the Vatican. I spent a few hours there while my wife wandered around the old buildings. The best areas in the park were those that had a few weeds.

Thanks for posting the shots of the Copper, William. Looks quite similar to the one that I photographed. We are down at Amalfi now and enjoying the walks. So far, I've seen a few butterflies but have not found an accessible area for photos.

[Bluebottle]

Beautiful place and photos