So, while her husband, Malcolm, was conquering the Matterhorn, Helen and I took the Postbus just a few stops down the valley to La Luette, to walk along the path which crosses the Passarelle de la Combe. We then dropped down to the naturally heated waters near Combioula, before climbing back up passed the Pyramids to Euseigne.
Helen was thanking me for taking her along this walk, but I was thanking her in the end as I managed to take pictures of three new butterflies, which I’d never seen before – and therefore never posted on this site before. 😊
The first (pic 4) was of an albeit tatty looking Dryad (minois dryas).
The second (pic 16) is of a rather shy Tree Grayling (hipparchia statilinus), which decided to hide, as it’s name suggests, under a felled tree trunk. It’s not widely seen across Switzerland, so I’ve included a distribution map (pic 16a) with an arrow indicating (very approximately) where we were.
The third (pic 17) was of a Lesser Purple Emperor (apatura ilia). In French it’s called a ‘Petit Mars changeant’ and it certainly seems to take many forms, being blue/violet or red/orange or, as my luck would have it, dark brown/black! This one flew up to the top of a bush, so I didn’t get a great picture of it. So, for some better pictures of this colourful butterfly please click here. Although more widespread across Switzerland, it’s classed as vulnerable on the Red List and is not that common in our area (pic 17a) . So I was a very happy bunny once I’d identified them all from my book. 😁 Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the flowers, which I couldn’t find at all. It seems every silver lining has a cloud…!
Footnote: The link above and distribution maps were take from Michel and Vincent Baudraz’s excellent website: https://www.lepido.ch/cartes-de-distribution
If you click on a particular group, the individual species are listed with distribution maps. Further photographs of each are also available by clicking on the name of the butterfly).
Alittlebitoutoffocus 
Nice finds Mike, that Tree Grayling is very smart.
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Thanks. Of course at the time of taking the pictures I didn’t know what they were. So it was quite exciting finding not one but 3 new ones! I can recall the giveaway markings now but by this time next year I will probably have forgotten. I’m the same with the flowers, there are just too many to remember. 😦
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We’ve not seen such beautiful butterflies. Thank you for bringing them to us across the pond.
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You’re very welcome. It’s always nice to find (& post) something different. 😊
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Thanks for sharing the notes of the walk and the photos! Mike, I think you could make a great book about the flora and fauna of Switzerland. Also, the blue-winged grasshopper blended in so well with the rock it was on! Wow!
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Hi Dorothea. (Are you back ‘home’ now?) I’m glad you liked the post. I think I could make a book, IF I actually knew what they all were. These 2 (and another not posted) didn’t seem to be in my alpine flora book, so maybe we were not high enough in altitude for them to be included. Of course that would open up a whole new world of plants, so I think I’ll skip on that idea, as good as it sounds. And this year has been a bumper year for grasshoppers and crickets. You can’t walk down our grassy drive without a whole cloud of them jumping out of the way. It’s like a small firework going off! 🙂
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I like the way you described that, Mike! And yes, I am back home… or rather, I came back to Berlin and now I’m even further, back home in Florida. It’s been a crazy few last months. But I finally drafted the England tour post, so I imagine you’ll have something to say about it. Thanks again for your help in coming up with a plan!
I can see why the book idea would be a challenge, but something to think about 😉
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OK – enjoy the Florida sunshine then! I’ll look forward to reading your UK tour post. 🙂
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The Chalkhill Blue is so stunning!
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Yes, they are certainly incredible colours. We chased another which was even more bright blue, but it got away. Maybe next time. 🙂
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