Butterflies of Arige

1
Butterflies of Ariège

• in the 1920s

2
Butterflies of Ariège

• And today

• and today

3
Where is Ariège? ?
Ariège?

• A Département in the French Pyrenees
• Between Toulouse Andorra

4
French Pyrenees

• Very diverse butterfly fauna
• 2nd only to Alps
• The Ariège Gap
• Rondous 1902 catalogue half a dozen species!
• 1920s studies

5
The 1920s studies

• Saurat April June 1929
• Auzat August 1925

6
Auzat William Fassnidge

• Modern languages teacher
• Summer holidays to study Lepidoptera
• Visited Auzat summer 1925
• Published paper 1926
• Did he go back in 1927?

7
Saurat Nabokov

• Long holiday from Berlin refugee life
• Living on sale of German rights to first book
• Collected butterflies wrote first masterpiece
  in Pyrenees

8
Taxonomic Changes

• Plebeius argyrognomon P.idas
• Colias hyale C.alfacariensis
• Leptidea sinapis L.sinapis reali
• Erebia tyndarus E.cassiodes (? or E.hispania)

9
The Pyrgus Problem

• 14 French species
• 7 from Ariège?
• All look the same
• Nabokov recorded P. onopordi (only Ariège
  record)
• Fassnidges collection includes some species not
  in his paper

10
The Meadow Fritillaries

• Melitaea/Mellicta
• M. athalia celadusa
• M. diamina vernetensis
• M. dejone rondoui
• M. parthenoides

11
1920s Missing Species

• No Red Admirals (V. atalanta) in Saurat?

• No Green-veined Whites (P. napi) in Auzat?

12
1920s species - not refound today

• 9 species
• All still present in Ariège
• Known colonies close-by
• Conclusion they are still in Auzat/Saurat but we
  missed them

13
Todays species - not found in 1920s

• 8 species
• They were known from Pyrenees at time
• No reason to suppose they are new colonisers
• Conclusion they were in Auzat/Saurat but Nabokov
  Fassnidge missed them

14
Probable Ariège colonisers since 1920s

• Chequered Skipper (C.palaemon)
• Large Chequered Skipper (H.morpheus)
• Map (A.levana)
• All associated with open, light woodland at lower
  altitudes

15
Move to higher altitude since 1920s

• Gatekeeper (P.tithonus)
• Below 700m in 1930s
• Altitude increase by 200m since 1985 in one
  Ariège valley
• Colonised Auzat since 1920s

16
Increasing Biodiversity

• 166 Ariège spp now known
• 13 spp to discover?
• No species have gone extinct
• New species have colonised since 1920s
• So is the future rosy?

17
Thanks

• NHM staff for access to Fassnidge collection
• Berit Pedersen at RES library
• To many recorders in Ariège
• Especially Graham Hart