Southern White Admiral Limenitis reducta
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Provence, July 2004
A group drinking, Provence, July 2004
A male guarding his territory - Switzerland, May 2007
This and the images below show more males guarding their territories, photographed in Switzerland in August 2007 - so second brood individuals.
Switzerland, June 2005
This species is not rare within its range - more southerly than that of white admiral - but I had never seen one before a passing visit to Provence in July 2004. There, a friend showed me a shady river bed where literally dozens of southern white admirals were drinking, in the company of false ilex hairstreaks, silver-washed fritillaries and a nettle tree butterfly, to name but a few. The admirals were also gliding up and down the woodland rides near the bed. Since then I have found them in a few places in the Rhône Valley in Switzerland, but never in the kinds of numbers I saw in Provence.
The metallic blue of the upperside of this insect is unmistakeable. White admirals, by contrast, are brown, more rounded, and also have a double rather than single row of dark spots outside the white patch on the upperside and underside of the hindwing.