Subject: High altitude butterflies

From: Patrick Roper <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 1995 22:50:46 +0100

Over the past few years readers of Butterfly Conservation News here in U.K.
have been sending in records of butterflies seen at high altitudes.

So far we have the following:-

Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera)

    13,671 feet (4,170 metres), Djebel Toubkal, Morocco

Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

    12,609 feet  (3,843 metres), Aiguille de Midi, France
      9,051 feet  (2,758 metres), Stelvio Pass, Italy
      9,039 feet  (2,755 metres), Fuorcla Surlej, Switzerland
      8,587 feet  (2,617 metres), Gavarnie, France
      6,000 feet  (1,830 metres), Western Alps, France/Switzerland (breeding)

"Mountain Ringlet" (Erebia sp.)

     12,609 feet (3,843 metres), Aiguille de Midi, France

It would be interesting to know which are the world's highest flying and
highest breeding butterflies, and indeed those which are found furthest
north and furthest south.

In this context, can anyone suggest why moths (and ? butterflies) that fly
in winter or at high altitudes often have rather thinly scaled wings?

Patrick Roper
Editor: Butterfly Conservation News (United Kingdom)

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From: [email-masked] (Dutch Butterfly Foundation)
Date: 13 Apr 1995 07:44:17 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, Patrick Roper <[email-masked]> writes:
>==============================================
>
May 1994 I visited the Sierra Nevada in the south of Spain.
At altitudes over 3000 m many migrating Cynthia cardui and Aglais urticae could
be seen moving northward. It was funny that at lower altitudes (below 2000 m)
these species were rare or even absent in this period (but of course this was
compensated by many other interesting species).

Chris van Swaay
Dutch Butterfly Foundation
Phone: +31-8370-24224
E-mail: [email-masked]