Malaga Butterflies July 2026

This summer we returned to Spain for our summer holidays. We have rented a villa near a village about 45 kilometres north west of Malaga every second year since 2012. Traditionally, we have visited the first two weeks of July, although on our previous two visits we went in June for a change!

Although in June the place was a little greener, this July it seemed particularly dry. Initially I thought this may just be me comparing it to June, but over the two weeks we were there I realised that it was drier than normal.

This Sage Skipper, Syrinthus proto, was guarding a spot on the track outside the villa, where I have seen one every year.

Spain had more than normal levels of rainfall over the winter and spring, causing a lot of vegetation growth, but very hot dry weather since had dried it all out. The wildfires seen across Spain were the result of all of the dry vegetation.

In previous years I would see loads of Southern Gatekeepers, Pyronia cecilia, hiding from the sun in shady areas along the track. This year I only chanced upon a couple.

My usual walks up the track close to the villa didn't result in as many butterflies as I normally see there. A few kilometres along the track there is a small, steep hill, where I have seen Swallowtails and Wall Browns in the past. At least this hill didn't disappoint this year. There were a lot of Painted Ladies, Vanessa cardui, flying in an area of Thyme at the base of the hill.

Higher up there were Long-tailed Blues, Lampides boeticus, and Wall Browns, Lasiommata megera, battling for territories.

Even on days sitting around the pool there were very few butterflies flying through the garden, which was quite unusual. A very bedraggled Lang's Short-tailed Blue was rescued from the pool the first day, and we saw a Swallowtail and a couple of Small Whites flying past.

The places where I used to find flowering Thyme and Lavender had much reduced plants with very few flowers. As well as being very warm and dry it was also quite windy, which didn't help.

I was very disappointed to see that some work had recently been done on the river, to ease flooding and erosion problems. The area of Mint and other wild flowers where I used to see so many butterflies had been completely cleared. However, I spied an untouched area on the other side of the river, so drove round to check it out.

I was delighted to find an area of small flowers where there were about ten African Grass Blues, Zizeeria knysna, flying. 

There were also Southern Blues, Polyommatus celina.

Small Coppers, Lycaena phlaeas.

And Southern Brown Argus, Aricia cramera, a nice selection of small butterflies.

My final count of species seen (22) wasn't too much lower than normal, but there was certainly not the quantity of each species that I would normally see. The number of species was boosted by a visit to Antequera, which I will talk about in my next post.

Antequera Butterflies - September 2019

Having visited Antequera in April 2019 and seen such a fantastic variety of butterflies, I thought I would visit again in September. I parked in the same spot as I had earlier in the year and walked along the track where there had been so many wild flowers in the spring.

Not surprisingly the flowers were mostly finished, other than one or two species. This didn't bode very well, but I was surprised to see quite a few little butterflies flying around.

First off was a Lang's Short-tailed Blue, Leptotes pirithous, which was laying eggs on a Gorse bush.

There were a number of similar-sized butterflies, which turned out to mostly be Sage Skippers, Muschampia proto,

... and Long-tailed Blues, Lampides boeticus.

There were also a few Small Whites, Pieris rapae, and some very worn Meadow Browns, Maniola jurtina.

The track then went through some arable fields, but I continued past a farmyard and into dip in the track, which offered a little shade. Here there was some mint growing, which was attracting butterflies. They flew backwards and forwards along this short section, stopping occasionally to feed. They were mostly Sage Skippers, Long-tailed Blues and Lang's Short-tailed Blues again, but there were also two or three Southern Blues, Polyommatus celina.

I was delighted to see a beautiful male Adonis Blue, Polyommatus bellargus, but it wouldn't stop for a picture. Neither would a Holly Blue, Celastrina argiolus. A little Southern Brown Argus, Aricia cramera, was more cooperative.

On the walk back I saw a rather worn out looking Striped Grayling, Hipparchia fidia.

There was also a Bath White, Pontia daplidice, and four Painted Ladies, Vanessa cardui.

So, I managed to see 14 species on what hadn't looked as though it was going to be a very promising walk. Only two fewer than I saw on my spring walk here.

Spanish Skippers - July 2012

I am not very familiar with Skippers - we don't get any in this part of Scotland, so I have problems identifying any I see. This isn't helped by the fact that there are quite a number of very similar-looking species, but each species can be quite variable! During our recent holiday to Spain I came across five different species. Not that I realised that at the time, I had to post my pictures on the UK Butterflies forum, where Guy Padfield and Roger Gibbons kindly identified them for me.
The pictures below are the five species they identified for me, but please don't ask me what the identifying features are!!

This one I managed to identify myself - it's a Mallow Skipper, Carcharodus alceae.

And this is the other one I managed to identify as a Sage Skipper, Muschampia proto.

This is the underside of the Sage Skipper.

This one I am told is a Red Underwing Skipper, Spialia sertorius. I had noted that it was smaller than the others I had seen, but I had no idea what it was!

This is a Southern Grizzled Skipper, Pyrgus malvoides.

And this one is a Southern Marbled Skipper, Carcharodus baeticus. 

A page of brown and beige - very 1970s! I am very grateful to Guy and Roger for their help identifying these pictures.