Chestnut Heath (Coenonympha glycerion)
2011 photos highlighted in green. Click on any photo to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.
|
There seems to me to be an amazing variation between individuals, even within the same locality, from strong unh ocelli to none at all, as well as variation in colouration - in fact there were few that I would describe as chestnut. The male has a darker unf and smaller unh white markings. The books usually say that glycerion can be identified by the series of unh post-discal spots with brilliant white pupils. |
Obviously the specimens I have seen would have been hard to identify on this basis, and it is hard to believe that the above are the same species. T&L says that the form bertolis with no ocelli occurs at higher altitudes. |
| ref | sex |
observations |
alt. m |
| 21713 | M |
a very dark male, with an appealing deep chestnut colouring. |
1400 |
| 21847 | M |
another strongly chestnut coloured male, with a large ocellus in s6 c.f. 21713's three small ocelli and nothing in s6. |
1600 |
| 21890 | M |
a paler male, with not a hint of an ocellus. It is the form bertolis. |
1750 |
| 26631 | M | a dark male of the form bertolis. | 1400 |
| 26682 | ? | a delicately marked glycerion, with only a vestigial unh ocellus in s2 and a stronger one in s6. An interesting submarginal unh band of warm chestnut colour. | 2000 |
| 7261 | ? |
this rather strange specimen has a very strong chestnut colouring especially on the unf and the unh marginal band, with no white unh post-discal mark, and no ocellus at all in s1 or s5. I am rather surprised to find glycerion as strongly coloured as this (and 7261 is the most orange specimen I have seen) at such high altitude. |
2100 |
| 11981 | ? |
a typical example of the altitude form bertolis with no ocelli. |
1580 |
| 21805 | F |
a female, which only know because I saw it in flight and the orange forewings of the female were clearly visible. A mid-chestnut colour and a significant ocellus in s6 and a vestigial one in s2. |
1600 |
21713_male_Alpes-Maritimes_7Jul10
21847_male_Alpes-Maritimes_9Jul10
21890_male_Hautes-Alpes_11Jul10
26631_male_Alpes-Maritimes_08Jul11
26682_sex?_Alpes-Maritimes_09Jul11
7261_sex?_Alpes-Maritimes_24Jun07
11981_sex?_Alpes-de-Haute-Provence_5Jul08
21805_female_Alpes-Maritimes_8Jul10