Alicante, Spain - Butterflies - April 2011

After a long and exceptionally snowy winter we headed for the sun of southern Spain for a week. We rented an apartment in Torrevieja, which unfortunately didn't prove to be a particularly good location for butterflies.


These little Geranium Bronzes, Cacyreus marshalli, have spread along much of the Mediterranean after being introduced from Southern Africa on geranium plants. They were enjoying the pot plants at the apartment.

I've never had any luck photographing the upper side of the wings!

Most of the area around the apartment was quite built-up and the surrounding landscape was very flat. I had been recommended a walk along a river - the Rio Segura, where there may have been more butterflies. Unfortunately the day I was there it was quite windy, so there were very few butterflies about. Of course, I saw the ubiquitous Small White butterfly, Pieris rapae.

Part way along the river I spotted a track heading up towards a farm where there was a scrubby knoll that I thought looked promising. On one small sheltered, sunny spot I saw some blue butterflies amongst the wild flowers and herbs. They turned out to be Black-eyed Blues, Glaucopsyche melanops. They are stunning little butterflies. The the upper side of the males are two shades of blue with a black surround and narrow white edge. The females are mostly brown with a few blue flecks. The under-sides of the wings are grey with lovely black markings.

I spent some time just watching the small colony of these beautiful little creatures. I had a very brief view of these in Portugal a couple of years earlier, but it was fantastic being able to watch them so closely.

On the drive back to the apartment I saw a small white butterfly at the side of the road, so I stopped and tried to get a closer look. It turned out to be a Bath White, Pontia daplidice, but it wasn't keen on stopping for a picture. This was the best I could manage. I did see them later in the holiday in a couple of places, but never managed a picture.

Another day I headed for the distant hills, thinking that there may be more butterflies there. However, the hills seemed to be further away than I thought and I got a little lost and ended up by a reservoir. Initially there didn't seem to be many butterflies there, but after I had been there a while they started to appear. This is a Spanish Marbled White, Melanargia ines. There were a couple of them arguing over a sunny spot. I kept trying to follow them to take a photograph, but every time one settled the other would fly past and disturb it. I noticed that they always came back to the same point and so I just sat and waited with my camera ready and before long one flew into shot!

Other butterflies that I saw on the trip were:

Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui

Large White, Pieris brassicae

Swallowtail, Papilio machaon

Clouded Yellow, Colias crocea

Southern Swallowtail, Iphiclides feisthamelii

Speckled Wood, Pararge aegeria aegeria

Wall Brown, Lasiommata megera

Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta

13 butterflies in total. I was expecting to see more, but I was thrilled to get good views of the Black-eyed Blues and Spanish Marbled Whites and I was particularly pleased to see the Bath Whites, a butterfly I hadn't seen before.

Portugal - Butterflies - April 2010

In April 2010 we returned to our friend's villa in the Algarve. This proved to be a very good time of year to be there for spotting butterflies and I found a small area where the land had been leveled in the past and which was now covered in wild flowers. Just next to this were areas of cork oak and grass offering a variety of habitats.

This was one of the first blues I saw, which I later identified as a Black-eyed Blue, Glaucopsyche melanops.

There were a few more Common Blues, Polyommatus icarus, around, but they were all rather worn out. I wonder if they were survivors from last year.

Back at the villa, Geranium Bronze, Cacyreus marshalli, were busy in the garden.

This Swallowtail, Papilio machaon, was in the abandoned orange grove next door.

Back at the wild flower patch, I was delighted to get some pictures of Clouded Yellows, Colias crocea.

I saw a Southern Brown Argus, Aricia cramera, in the same area several times. I suspect it was the same specimen that I saw each time.

This fuzzy picture was the best I could do of the pale form of the Clouded Yellow, Colias crocea.

Amongst the cork oaks were a few Green Hairstreaks, Callophrys rubi. These are beautiful little butterflies that I had never seen before.

Green-striped Whites, Euchloe belemia, were probably the most common butterflies in the area. I really love these striking little butterflies.

Western Dappled Whites, Euchloe crameri, were also fairly common. Another beautiful butterfly that reminded me of my favourite butterfly, the Orange Tip.

I briefly saw a Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina, a common butterfly back home.

Another common butterfly back home is the Small Heath, Coenonympha pamphilus. We saw this one in a valley up in the mountains.

The moment I took this picture is one of those moments I will always remember. Just after I took the picture my wife came to find me to tell me that she had heard on the news that a volcano had erupted in Iceland and that all flights to the UK had been cancelled. The result of the chaos was that our 14 day holiday ended up as a 22 day holiday, but the last 8 days weren't all fun. We spent hours at internet cafes researching trains, buses and ferries across Portugal, Spain and France to see how we could get home. We also considered renting a car or even buying an old car to get home. After several visits and long queues at the airport our flight was re-scheduled. Anyway, this is a Red-underwing Skipper, Spialia sertotius.

This is a Small Copper, Lycaena phlaeas.

Small Whites, Pieris rapae, seem to occur in most countries I have visited, although they didn't seen to be very common in Portugal.

While I was walking along the road a Spanish Festoon, Zerynthia rumina, caught my eye behaving strangely. It turned out to be laying eggs on the underside of the leaves of some plants. Her is an egg.

And here is an adult Spanish Festoon.

I stalked this Spanish Marbled White, Melanargia ines, for ages, but just couldn't get close to it. This was the best picture I could manage!

In contrast the Speckled Woods, Pararge aegeria, were very obliging.

We had to move along the coast for the last few days of our holiday to a more rural area, but strangely to where there were fewer butterflies. However, the area seemed to be a hot spot for Marsh Fritillaries, Euphydryas aurinia.

During the holiday I also saw:

Wood Whites - Leptidea sinapis

Painted Ladies - Vanessa cardui

Large Tortoiseshell - Nymphalis polychloros

Long-tailed Blue - Lampides boeticus

Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta

Large White - Pieris brassicae

A total of 24 species during the trip.