Chestnut Heath (Coenonympha glycerion)

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2011 photos highlighted in green. Click on any photo to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.

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  

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