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 Fritillaries

I walked a little further down the dry stream bed to where it opened out into a rocky area. There were several fritillaries flying around fighting over this prized territory. It was so nice having time to observe them and take pictures of the upper and underside of the wings. I realised that they usually returned to the same spot after a bout of aerial combat, so I was able to wait for them to return for a photograph!

There were at least two Knapweed Fritillaries, Melitaea phoebe.

They seemed to be continually chasing off some Niobe Fritillaries, Argynnis niobe altonevadensis.

A Spotted Fritillary, Melitaea didyma, seemed to be at the bottom of the pecking order and was quickly seen off.

But a Marsh Fritillary, Euphydryas aurinia beckeri, was more persistent, constantly returning to its favourite rose bush.

Occasionally a larger Fritillary would fly past, but it would soon be chased off before it had even landed. I suspect they were High Brown Fritillaries, Argynnis adippe, as that is the largest fritillary occurring in the Sierra Nevada.

There were also a few Queen of Spain Fritillaries, Issoria lathonia. They seemed to be the top dogs in the area.

I returned to the car to have a drink of water and while I was there I noticed two fritillaries on a yellow flower below me. I cautiously approached them and saw that they were Cardinal Fritillaries, Argynnis pandora.

Despite a disappointing start to my day, I ended up seeing 33 species. It was so nice being able to spend some time watching the butterflies in this little meadow.