Swiss Brassy Ringlet
(erebia tyndarus)
2008 photos highlighted green. Click on any photo to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.
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| 8296_male_Valais, Switzerland_22Jul07 | 8385_male_Valais, Switzerland_22Jul07 | 13300_male_Valais, Switzerland_20Jul08 |
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| 13095_male_Valais, Switzerland_17Jul08 | 13098_female_Valais, Switzerland_17Jul08 | 8379_female_Valais, Switzerland_22Jul07 |
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| 13029_female_Valais, Switzerland_16Jul08 |
Technically perhaps not a butterfly of France, although there are historical records of tyndarus occurring in the French Alps, and Lafranchis includes it in his recent French work. These specimens were seen in Switzerland, where it seemed quite common. Perhaps, given its name, this is not too much of a surprise.
Although not really captured in these photos (perhaps except 13300), tyndarus has a noticeable brassy sheen on the forewing in flight. The upf red post-discal band is very wide in s4 and s5 but narrows below that. The two ocelli (and it has been known with one or no ocelli) are quite small and the s4 ocellus is usually much smaller and displaced externally, almost pushing at the edge of the band.
8296: on balance I believe this to be a male based on body length and absence of an uph pd band, but the body shape, lighter brown ground colour, and the position of the upf ocelli at the edge of the post-discal band suggest female. However, the T&L female has a chequered hindwing margin and 8296 does not, even allowing for some ageing. Altitude 2200m.
8385: a fresh male. The dark brown ground colour and the absence of any uph markings, plus the body shape/length confirm this. Even here the upf ocelli are at the external edge of the red post-discal band which T&L shows more clearly for the female than the male, so maybe this isn't too indicative. The brassy appearance is just about visible. Altitude 2200m.
13300: a male, taking salts. The angle shows the green reflective brassy sheen quite well. This is often visible in the field as the wings flutter in the sunlight but not so easy to capture on film.
13095: a male, as indicated by the darker and strongly contrasting bands. This seems unusual for erebia where the male underside is usually lighter than the female. It really is quite a hairy little beast.
13098: a female, based on body shape, lighter brown ground colour and larger, redder, upf post-discal band, nicely broken up by the veins.
8379: I have labelled this a female on the basis of the very light unh colour, a good match for the illustration in T&L where the male is shown considerably darker. However, what is visible of the unf is quite dark red and a better match for male. Perhaps most conclusively it appears to be taking salts from dry stone (I don't think there was any moisture there) and this would clearly indicate male, wouldn't it? Comment invited. Altitude 2200m.
13029: a female, quite a good match for the illustration in T&L, and the visible body shape rather helpfully confirms this.
8296_male_Valais, Switzerland_22Jul07
8385_male_Valais, Switzerland_22Jul07
13300_male_Valais, Switzerland_20Jul08
13095_male_Valais, Switzerland_17Jul08
13098_female_Valais, Switzerland_17Jul08
8379_female_Valais, Switzerland_22Jul07
13029_female_Valais, Switzerland_16Jul08
