Each butterfly is shown feeding on Field Eryngo. They loved this plant
although we did find a couple feeding on a small yellow flower of the family Compositae.
To find this species it was necessary first to find the larval food plant, a
small pink flowered Geranium. This wasn't at all easy to find and only where it
was in any numbers did we find the butterfly. It was so hot that there was never
any opportunity to see more than a glimpse of the slate gray uppersides almost
completely lacking orange markings. This is one of the features that separates
it from A. agestis which has extensive orange markings around the
upperside of both wings.
These butterflies were found near Soria. The sub species hasselbarthi
is found here has particularly large underside spots, especially on the
forewing. This is clearly visible on the photographs above.
In all the photos I have, the underside forewing spots look washed out. This
is not shown in the field guides but is unmistakable in the pictures.
