Sierra Nevada Butterflies - June 2024 Part 1

On 17^th June I went on my traditional butterfly pilgrimage to the Sierra Nevada. It is a 200 kilometre drive in both directions from the villa we were staying in, but well worth the effort. There are four places I always visit there, which I know offer a great variety of butterflies. Initially I drive right up to the main ski resort at Hoya de la Mora and leave the car in the car park before the road barrier. From here I take the path down to the San Juan stream.

This is mostly quite rocky and barren, but there are a lot of little Alpine-type plants between the rocks.

Down by the stream there are a few areas of damp grassland, where amazing Gentian grow along with Tirana, which has sticky leaves for catching insects.

Almost as soon as I started walking I saw a Painted Lady drinking from a damp area below a patch of snow. I saw a few more of them on my walk down the hill.

A little further on and a blue butterfly landed ahead of me, which turned out to be a male Escher’s Blue. And further down the slope I saw a couple more, but those were the only Escher’s Blue I saw. Quite different from my visits in early July when they are quite common.

Small Tortoiseshells were dotted along the route and I saw about ten of them.

More numerous were Wall Browns which flew rapidly among the rocks and seemed to disappear when they landed!

As with everywhere else on my trip Small Whites were very numerous. It is always worth checking each white butterfly, as two of them turned out to be Bath Whites!

I saw this one, beautifully marked, Safflower Skipper.

As the ground became a little damper and more vegetated there were a few Nevada Blues about. I was very pleased to see these as I didn’t expect that they would be flying until July.

There were about five Clouded Yellows on this walk. Most of those I saw were the pale form, helice.

I returned to the car park and continued up the closed road beyond the barrier. My intention was to see if any Zullich’s Blues were flying yet. I met a group of about ten butterfly enthusiasts with big lenses who were patrolling the area. They told me that there had been a Zullich’s Blue photographed there the day before. Sadly, none of us saw one that day. However, I did see a Spanish Argus.

There were also a few Nevada Blues flying there and Queen of Spain Fritillaries.

I could have spent so much longer walking these areas, but I had quite a tight itinerary and two more exciting locations to visit.

Sierra Nevada Butterflies - July 2016 (2)

I drove up to the car park at the ski resort at Hoya De la Mora. This is as far as you can drive, although it is possible to take a mini-bus further up the mountain. As I got out of the car I saw a Bath White, Pontia daplidice. I had seen a number of similar butterflies on the drive up the hill, so it was good to confirm its identity.

I started to walk up the mountain to another area recommended by Mike Prentice. Almost immediately I saw a Purple-shot Copper, Lycaena alciphron gordius.

Then a larger butterfly caught my eye. It turned out to be a Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui. We had just experienced an influx of Painted Ladies in Scotland and evidently they were doing well here, too. I saw another one just a little further up the path.

I was delighted to see so many Apollos, Parnassius apollo nevadensis. The sub-species in the Sierra Nevada has orange, rather than red, ocelli. They seemed a lot more approachable this year and a little later when a cloud came over they all landed and on a couple of occasions I very nearly stood on one! I guess with such large butterflies they need the energy of the sun to keep them airborne.

There were a number of Small Whites, Pieris rapae, flying in the same area as the Apollos along with one or two Small Tortoiseshells, Aglais urticae.

There were also blue butterflies there, which I could only identify by photographing them and enlarging their picture on the camera. They all turned out to be Escher's Blues, Agrodiaetus esheri.

A little higher up the Small Tortoiseshells were replaced by Queen of Spain Fritillaries, Issoria lathonia. The last time I was in Sierra Nevada I very briefly saw one of these a little lower down the mountain, but this time I saw seven or eight.

My reason for climbing further up this barren-looking mountain side was because Mike Prentice had suggested some sites I could check for Zullich’s Blue, Agriades zullichi. I was amazed that there continued to be plenty of butterflies despite the apparent lack of vegetation. I didn’t spot any Zullich’s Blues at the first area he had suggested, but I was over the moon to spot one at the second location, which was at about 2,650 metres above sea level.

I think there were about 15 Zullich’s Blues there and I saw some very similar-looking Spanish Argus, Aricia morronensis, flying with them. These were both new species for me.

It was lovely to watch them with an occasional fly past of an Apollo, which looked enormous compared to the small Lycaenidae. Some Nevada Blues, Plebicula golgus, also joined the party. I spent some time at that location and sat down on a rock with a snack while watching these rare butterflies.

It seemed like such a hostile environment for these small creatures to live in. This was the height of summer, but there was still quite a wind blowing and very little shelter.

Eventually I had to drag myself away as there were so many more places I wanted to explore. However, I was quickly distracted by a Spanish Brassy Ringlet, Erebia hispania. Unlike two years earlier these ones allowed me to take a picture. I saw quite a few as I started to descend the path.

Next I wanted to head down to a green area near the stream lower down the valley ...