APOLLO - one of another 2 new butterflies!

Yet another butterfly post but one that I have been wanting to write for a loooong time!

On our drive back from Bodø we stopped at the two butterfly localities that I had tried unsuccesfully on the way up. At the Thor’s Fritillary site it was not raining this time but it was not sunny either and there were no butterflies on the wing (but if you keep on reading you will see that was not to matter..)

At the Apollo butterfly site we clearly had both perfect weather and timing. We arrived at 11:30 with sun occasional cloud and little wind. There were a number of butterflies on the wing and it only took 5 minutes before I found a nectaring Apollo! Unfortunately it flew almost immediately and made its way up the cliff and soon out of sight but what a butterfly!! It was huge and seemed just to float through the air without flapping. I had to wait 20 minutes for another sighting which was brief but then just 5 minutes later (I believe it was the same individual each time) it appeared again and nectared long enough for me to get close and really enjoy it.

My time waiting for the Apollo was hardly dull though as my first ever Norwegian Hummingbird Hawkmoth was buzzing around coming really close at times and testing my photography reflexes to the max.

Now that I am home I have been able to look at some of the photos I took whilst at the cabin on the computer. I was particularly interested in looking at the photos I had managed to take of a fritillary at Sulitjelma (in fact the only fritillary I saw on my two visits there). When I saw it on marshy area amongst birch trees I was immediately struck by the unusual shape of its wings. It perched on a birch tree where I managed some long range photos of the upperwing and I then decided I would use the net I had been lugging around in my rucksack to capture it so I could see the underwing properly. Unfortunately I only managed to scare it off and it flew up through the trees and away. I didn’t think I had any photos showing the underwing and settled on it being a Bog Fritillary (myrperlemorvinge) although really I should have made no ID at all. Looking through my photos on the PC though I see that I did capture enough of the underwing which enables me, in addition to the upperwing pattern, to ID it as a Thor’s Fritillary so I managed to find one myself in a new area! This species is reported very rarely in Norway with a max of 4 observations in a year in the last decade. I clearly have discovered some good butterfly areas in Sulitjelma and it deserves a lot more attention.

So I am now up to 68 butterfly species in Norway 💪😀

Apollo butterfly - a wingspan of up to 9cm makes it larger than many birds!

here it looks to be laying eggs on a rock

and here in moss

hummingbird hawkmoth (dagsvermer) have arrived in large numbers in Norway this year

out of focus but look at the proboscis

I saw it perch only once but behind a stone

Thor's Fritillary (tors perlemorvinge). I have identified it due to the round short wings, the spots inside the forewings edge form a long thin line. From what we can see of the underwing it has a series of pale cells with dark edges and it is the form of these that I believe to be diagnostic. Of course I would like better pictures...