Dryad (Minois dryas)

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2022 photographs highlighted in blue. Click on any photograph to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.

31375_male_Isère_22Jul12 36463_male_Rhône_23Jul14 36454_pair_Rhône_23Jul14 34183_female_Dordogne_27Aug13
45005_female_Rhône_28Jul17 36510_male_Rhône_23Jul14 36544_male_Rhône_23Jul14 9171_male_Dordogne_14Aug07
3253_male_Alpes-Maritimes_27Jul06 18916_male_Dordogne_20Aug09 41699_male_Rhône_18Jul16 44535_female_Alpes-Maritimes_18Jul17
 
44997_female_Rhône_28Jul17 8289_female_Vaud, Switzerland_21Jul07 31365_pair_Isère_22Jul12  

A rather strange and fascinating species. The female is very large and the upperside ground colour is a light chocolate-brown, the female being lighter than the male as with most Satyridae species. There are two large ocelli on the forewing with whitish-blue to blue centres (larger in the female, and visible on both upperside and underside in both sexes), which gives it a rather strange appearance.

The only species with which it could be confused is the Great Sooty Satyr (Satyrus ferula), where the male is similar, especially the upperside, although the centres of the ferula ocelli are clearly white, and dryas also has an extra small ocellus on the hindwing. Also, the dryas wing shape is rather square and the hindwing is scalloped, quite heavily in the female. The female unh has a clear whitish post-discal band.

ref

sex

observations

alt. m

31375

M

a male, showing a rare (on my experience) view of the upperside.

210

36463

M

a rather worn male, but with very small ocelli.

180

36454

PAIR

a mating pair, the female below with open wings.

180

34183

F

a female, taking the last of the sun's rays at the end of the afternoon. The size of the ocelli can be compared with the male in 31375.

110

45005 F a female, rather pale due to ageing, but very much showing the large blue pupils of the ocelli. 180

36510

M

a male, a rather pale brown but with a distinctive post-discal line.

180

36544

M

a male on the left with a nice rich chocolate-brown ground colour. Its companion on the right has no unh ocellus.

180

9171

M

a rather pale male, the apical unf ocellus being unusually almost the same size as the lower, whereas it is usually much smaller. This photograph just about shows the blue centres to the unf ocelli, and blue scales can just be detected in the small unh ocellus in s2. This was seen in a very westerly location where dryas is in decline.

70

3253

M

the unf ocellus in s5 is as large as in the one in s2; the illustration in T&L shows the s5 ocellus as smaller.

1000

18916

M

a male, with forewing folded down. Great camouflage, but not on a pale grey road.

80

41699 M a male. It was a hot day and this male was rather tenacious in settling on my skin to feast on the perspiration, which made photography very difficult (plus the fact that I am not keen to take shots that are not clearly "in nature"). Having said that, I then hit on the idea of transferring some perspiration to a grass stalk and transferring the rather tame 41699 to the stalk, and - hey presto - a completely natural photograph. 180
44535 F a female from a much higher altitude than the others on this page. The discal band is very subdued with very little contrast across the discal line. The black submarginal band is also very pronounced. 1550
44997 F a fairly typical female dryas in my experience, the post-discal band being averagely light. 180

8289

F

a female, as indicated by the lighter post-discal band and deep scalloping of the hindwing. The unf apical ocellus is rather odd in that the blue centre is not round and it is also displaced externally.

600

31365

PAIR

a mating pair, the female above.

210

 

31375_male_Isère_22Jul12

 

36463_male_Rhône_23Jul14

 

36454_pair_Rhône_23Jul14

 

34183_female_Dordogne_27Aug13

 

45005_female_Rhône_28Jul17

 

36510_male_Rhône_23Jul14

 

36544_male_Rhône_23Jul14

 

9171_male_Dordogne_14Aug07

 

3253_male_Alpes-Maritimes_27Jul06

 

18916_male_Dordogne_20Aug09

 

41699_male_Rhône_18Jul16

 

44535_female_Alpes-Maritimes_18Jul17

 

44997_female_Rhône_28Jul17

 

8289_female_Vaud, Switzerland_21Jul07

 

31365_pair_Isère_22Jul12