Lycaena dispar in Lombardia, Italia - May 2015
May 11, 2015 12:30:49 GMT
deliasfanatic, mygos, and 5 more like this
Post by wollastoni on May 11, 2015 12:30:49 GMT
Lycaena dispar is a splendid and rare species in Western Europe. There are some colonies around Milan in Northern Italy in the humid ricefield environment where its hostplant Rumex is common.
As all Lycaenidae lovers know, Lycaena species lose very fastly their scales and beauty due to their fast flight and fighting spirit (especially males). It is thus key to be there during the emerging period if you want to see fresh splendid specimens.
Tolman's guide of European butterflies says that the season of Lycaena dispar rutila starts in end-May. But last year I went to my spot, Velezzo Lomellina in Lombardia, in end-May and founded some old females only.
Thus I decided to try and see them yesterday as it was sunny and hot 28°C, I went there (1.30 hour of car from Milano) with the risk of seeing nothing...
I was right, as I have seen some very fresh males and even some old ones ! We can say that the season of Lycaena dispar starts in the beginning of May in Northern Italy.
Males were flying along a small road without resting (it was 2PM) so they were hard to picture. I guess they were looking for females as they often inspect Rumex leaves, this is where I picture them. I saw about 4 males in one hour, I did not see any females, they may emerge later (next week ?)
Some pictures of a fresh male beauty :
A picture of an old male (maybe one week old...) as you can see it fastly loses its beauty :
The hostplant Rumex sp.
On top of the numerous cars driving at 90km/h near those butterflies, another enemy which hunts on the Rumex leaves. Those tiny frogs are about 3 cm large only.
Hope you will like those pictures.
PS : I have tried to attract males with a fluo orange yoghurt pot put on the floor, some males inspected it but they did not stay on it. So not very efficient.
As all Lycaenidae lovers know, Lycaena species lose very fastly their scales and beauty due to their fast flight and fighting spirit (especially males). It is thus key to be there during the emerging period if you want to see fresh splendid specimens.
Tolman's guide of European butterflies says that the season of Lycaena dispar rutila starts in end-May. But last year I went to my spot, Velezzo Lomellina in Lombardia, in end-May and founded some old females only.
Thus I decided to try and see them yesterday as it was sunny and hot 28°C, I went there (1.30 hour of car from Milano) with the risk of seeing nothing...
I was right, as I have seen some very fresh males and even some old ones ! We can say that the season of Lycaena dispar starts in the beginning of May in Northern Italy.
Males were flying along a small road without resting (it was 2PM) so they were hard to picture. I guess they were looking for females as they often inspect Rumex leaves, this is where I picture them. I saw about 4 males in one hour, I did not see any females, they may emerge later (next week ?)
Some pictures of a fresh male beauty :
A picture of an old male (maybe one week old...) as you can see it fastly loses its beauty :
The hostplant Rumex sp.
On top of the numerous cars driving at 90km/h near those butterflies, another enemy which hunts on the Rumex leaves. Those tiny frogs are about 3 cm large only.
Hope you will like those pictures.
PS : I have tried to attract males with a fluo orange yoghurt pot put on the floor, some males inspected it but they did not stay on it. So not very efficient.
