Striking butterflies of the South of France 1.
France has a rich stock of both day and moths. Some species also fly in the Benelux countries, others limit their habitat to southern and central Europe. The photo report below gives a small overview of what we usually find in our south French garden and around the house of butterflies in the spring and summer months. Enjoy the butterflies of nature in the Occitan part of France.. The butterfly in the photo above is the King's age. (Iphiclides podalirius) A beautiful large page that is common in the south and south-east of France. The French subspecies feisthemali also found in Spain has a little more white in its wings and clearer blue spots on the rear wings than the other species from Italy and Greece. This butterfly has a preference for the nectar from lavender flowers, although they are also sometimes numerous on butterfly bushes as in the photo taken in our own garden. Another photo of the King's Age. Also this one sits on a butterfly bush in our south French garden. By the way, we have a part of the pool shielded with two meters high butterfly bushes where it is a coming and going of insects in the summer.. Another striking guest in the garden is the Little Pearlescent Fritillary (Issoria Lathonia) These butterflies can be found in the garden especially in the morning hours. In the afternoon it is the larger species who show themselves mainly around the pool on the butterfly bushes. Some butterflies are very shy and are difficult to approach by a photographer. Other species, such as the magnificent large pearl fritillary with the official name (Clossiana titania) is found only in southern France, the Alps and the Baltic countries in Europe. Its area extends far into Asia. The funny thing is that this species can be approached to a distance of less than two meters. They love the nectar of the butterfly bushes and sometimes come along with many at the same time to the strongly scented flowers of this shrub. The butterfly that belongs absolutely in the list of most interesting southern European butterflies is the Jasius butterfly. (Charaxes jasius) This is for me the most beautiful butterfly in Europe. Actually, this species comes from Africa, but a few hundred years ago they nestled on the coasts of Italy, Greece, Spain and southern France. The butterfly is attracted by the juice of trees, fruits and cadavers, sometimes they are guided by bait and feces of large ungulates. They rarely feed on nectar! Especially towards the evening, the butterflies that still fly color really brilliantly in the sun. The violet brazier (Heodes alciphron) is also such a butterfly species that you do not just encounter in the Low Countries. In the Netherlands, sometimes they are wanderers. In France, on the other hand, they are mainly seen in the Alpine departments, but also in our southern Occitan part of the country they can be seen frequently. The same applies to the above butterfly with the name Morgenrood. (Heodes virgaureae) Like the violet brazier, she belongs to the so-called small pages. The butterfly in the photo is a female. They are more yellow and have stiipen on the wings. The males are beautifully even red with a dark band around the wings. A butterfly that is not easy to approach to take a picture. One of the most common major pages in southern Europe is the Queen Page. (Papilio machaon) These butterflies love the nectar of the butterfly bushes, but can also be seen on flowering clover plants. These large pages have also been found more and more in the Benelux countries over the last thirty years. Because they fly so fast and descend rather rough on crops, flowers and plants, it is not often that you get to see a completely undamaged specimen in front of the camera lens. In this case, I was lucky to take the picture. The large veined white (Aporia crataegi) was also common in the Netherlands in the past years. But unfortunately he has disappeared from Dutch nature for years. Fortunately, in the rest of Europe, they can still be found in many places, especially on meager soil and on rough terrain with lots of wildflowers. The last butterfly in this series is Escher's blue (Agrodiaetus escheri) A frequent blue in the Cevennes on flowery hills. Scores like the Icarus blue but is considerably larger in size. Females are continuing mainly brown with red dots on the wings as is the case with many female blues.
