France – Butterflies & Moths of the Vercors

By Paul Harmes & Neil Sherman

In July this year, 11 group members, led by Paul Harmes and Pete Stevens, enjoyed an 8-day tour to the central region of the Vercors Plateau, where we were based in the delightful, family-run Hotel Bellier in the town of La Chapelle-en-Vercors.

The basis of this tour is to seek out butterflies by exploring the area’s variety of habitats, from rural lowland to sub-alpine grassland, and mixed woodland to dramatic mountain ridges, all at different altitudes between 400m and 1,950m above sea level. In addition, we run a ‘Skinner’ moth-trap nightly in the hotel grounds. This year, two members of the group brought two additional travelling ‘Actinic’ traps plus an LED trap, allowing us to trap in different parts of the grounds, adding to the species list and helping our understanding of the location.

After arriving in France in overcast, thundery and wet conditions, the weather improved, and we had some very fine and occasionally very hot weather, and some mildly windy conditions.

In the seven years that this tour has run, we have recorded between 80 and 110 species of butterflies annually in this region. The 2023 list was a ‘middle of the road’ one. One reason seemed to be that we were visiting in a period between broods, especially in regard to the ‘blues’, only recording one Idas Blue, a few Turquoise Blue (new for the trip), two Large Blue, Provençal Short-tailed Blue, Damon Blue and one Long-tailed Blue. Fritillaries, however, were regular in appearance. Niobe and High Brown Fritillaries were coming to the end of the flight period, and Dark Green seemed to be more regular as the week progressed. The highlights in this group were Grisons Fritillary, with some very fresh specimens in a lovely woodland clearing, and at the same location, Lesser Marbled Fritillary and, elsewhere, Titania’s Fritillary. Queen of Spain, Silver-washed and False Heath Fritillaries were common. The most frequent ringlets were Arran Brown and Scotch Argus, whilst De Prunner’s and Mountain Ringlets were rare, even in their alpine habitat, and others, seen in previous years, had yet to emerge. Common Brassy Ringlet was not uncommon in alpine and subalpine meadows. Green-veined White, Black-veined White and Wood White were seen occasionally; Berger’s Clouded Yellow and Clouded Yellow were occasional and Mountain Clouded Yellow was not uncommon at high altitude. Finally, of the skippers, Lulworth, Tufted Marbled (also new for the trip) and Mallow were the most notable.

The warm conditions overnight pretty much all week resulted in some great catches of moths in the traps run around the hotel area. There were many familiar moths we are used to seeing back home and some that are now extinct in Britain, along with many interesting European species.

Starting with the macro moths, species of interest caught included the following: Goat Moth (nightly), Acossus terebra (another European Goat Moth), Black V, Oak Yellow Underwing (a few), Light Crimson Underwing (one), Passenger (one, a rare migrant in the UK), Dusky Fan-foot (a singleton, one British record only), Purple Treble-bar (at night as well as during the day at Pas de l'Oeille in numbers), Speckled Beauty (a few, an extinct species in Britain), Lydd Beauty (a rare migrant in the UK), Feathered Beauty (every night, very scarce in the UK), Scotopteryx angularia (a few of this very striking large carpet moth), Fir Carpet (another very rare migrant in the UK), Gnophos furvata (a very large Annulet-type moth), Pine-tree Lappet (pretty regular), Ground Lackey (a saltmarsh moth in Britain, so unusual for us to see away from the coast!), Purple Cloud (a stunning looking rare migrant moth in Britain), Scarce Brindle (regular, very rare visitor to Britain), Cudweed (two seen, an extinct British resident last seen in the 1980s), Calliergis ramosa (a smart brown and light grey European Noctuid moth), Epilecta linogrisea (a moth with a bark-like appearance but bright yellow hindwings), Guernsey Underwing (seen daily), Lamprosticta culta (a marbled greenish and white Noctuid moth, pretty common), Pale Shining Brown (seen every night, now pretty much extinct in the UK), Bordered Gothic (a few, now only found in Ireland, extinct elsewhere in the UK), Tawny prominent (a rare visitor to Britain) and Elephant, Small Elephant, Poplar, Privet and Pine Hawk-moths.

There were a few nice micro moths too, including Harpella forficella (a nice yellow and chocolate brown Oecophorid moth) and rare migrants to the UK Etiella zinckenella, Palpita vitrealis and Uresiphita gilvata.

Whilst out looking for butterflies, we also found quite a number of day-flying moths. Bright Waves were everywhere, unlike in Britain where they are restricted to the coasts of Kent. Humming-bird Hawks were found daily and we also saw a few Broad-bordered Bee Hawks and a couple of Narrow-bordered Bee Hawks. Burnets were represented by the Reticent Burnet (Zygaena romeo), Southern Six-spot Burnet (Zygaena transalpina) and Six-spot Burnet. Both John and Neil brought some clearwing moth pheromones, which on one day were successful in luring in a single Bembecia albanensis, a clearwing whose larva feeds in the roots of Restharrow.

Other interesting species found in the daytime were: Lewes Wave, Middle Lace Border, Orange Wave (Idaea flaveolaria), Drab Looper, Crocota tinctaria (a bright yellow Geometrid), Psodos quadrifaria (a dark brown, yellow-spotted day-flying Geometrid moth seen at high altitude), Entephria cyanata (a beautiful yellow and grey banded carpet moth found at rest on a rock at Pas de l'Oeille), plus Jersey and Scarlet Tiger moths.

This year’s tour recorded 90 species and subspecies of butterflies and 400 species of moths.

Note from Paul Harmes: 'As the tour leader, I would like, on behalf of the group, to extend special thanks to my co-author Neil and to John for firstly bringing along their travelling traps, and also for their knowledge and expertise, freely and thoughtfully shared with all members of the group.'