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Tomares ballus

Provence Hairstreak


Var, France, April 2004


Agadir, Morocco, March 2001


Var, France, April 2006


Var, France, April 2006


Var, France, April 2006


Var, France, April 2006


Var, France, April 2006


Var, France, April 2006


Agadir, Morocco, March 2001


Var, France, April 2004


Agadir, Morocco, March 2001 Taking juice from a damaged cactus.

BELOW: Butterfly cleaning right hand antenna with central leg. Agadir, Morocco, March 2001
Resting	Reaching antenna with middle leg
Bending head round to hook over antenna	Cleaning started
Stretching head and leg to reach tip	Stretching futher
Nearly there	Moments before antenna released

This is a rather striking butterfly with bright orange and green underside colours. It flies in north Africa, Spain and a small part of southern France. It flies very early in the year, one of the first on the wing. I searched for it at a site in France the last weekend of March in 2003 - in 2 hours of hot sun the only butterfly I saw was a Green Veined White. Two weeks later ballus was flying strongly. I found two areas of rough ground and relatively bare ground within 200m of each other which held colonies but I found none in between. This suggested the colonies were distinct and very small, with low (if any) interchange of individuals. In Morocco it appeared to be more widespread but still local although there was nothing to suggest its colonies were as small as those found in France.

I found an interesting 30 second video showing a butterfly cleaning one of its antennae with a leg. This is illustrated in the scheme of photographs moving right to left above. I don't see this very often. I'm not actually sure if I've ever seen it before although I think I may have done in moths in the England.

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