France, June 2008

France, June 2008

France, June 2008

I saw this butterfly for the first time in June 2008, at a colony shown to me by a friend in France. It is a scarce and threatened species, found only locally and in widely dispersed colonies. The habitat where we saw it was rather wet meadow, sometimes very wet (with tussocks of coarse grass standing in waterlogged ground), studded with bushes and small conifers. The conifers are in fact one of the threats - if they grow to maturity they will turn the habitat into inappropriate forest. For the moment, the butterfly flies in good numbers at this site and it was relatively easy to find, if not to photograph. It stops frequently but only for very short periods - which can be very frustrating! Between stops it flies rather unevenly, even jerkily, and is instantly identifiable as a very dark heath - perhaps only confusable with the false ringlet, a butterfly I have yet to see.