Female, Switzerland, September 2017 (the damaged hindwing didn't stop
her flying perfectly well)
Female, Switzerland, April
2014
Female, Switzerland, April 2014
Switzerland, April 2014
Male, Switzerland, August 2013
Female (I think), Switzerland, September 2013
Aragón, Spain, July 2017
Aragón, Spain, July 2017
Female laying on mallow, Aragón, Spain, July 2017
Distribution
The rosy grizzled skipper is widespread but often very local in
south-western Europe. I know of only one extended site where it flies
in Switzerland - a hot, south-facing, rocky hillside in the Rhône
Valley - but at that site it is a common butterfly. It appears soon
after the grizzled skippers, in April, and flies in three broods until
well into the autumn, often being the last skipper of the year I see.
With a good view of the underside, identification is easy. The central
white mark on the hindwing is shaped like an anvil, extending basally
and distally at the top, and edged in black. Other spots in the
postdiscal sequence are also edged in black, including the
characteristic large, slightly sinuous spot in s.1 (often called the
'signe de Blachier'). The underside ground colour is brownish, tinged
with orange, and the veins are bright. From the upperside, this is a
well marked skipper, though less so in the female, often with quite
extensive white scaling on the male upperside. The hindwing markings
are well defined, particularly in the male. In the female, the central
mark is often reduced to a short transverse line. In the male, even
when the markings are full and complete, this line is still often
accentuated.
Like many other grizzled skippers, the rosy grizzled skipper uses
various species of Potentilla
as foodplant, and I believe these are what it uses in Switzerland. It
will also take mallow (Malva
neglecta).
This is said to be the predominant foodplant in Spain. The female I
photographed ovipositing in Aragón was on a rough patch of waste ground
near cultivation, where mallow was growing. The species hibernates as a
larva.
