Butterfly Bonanza (How to identify butterfly families)

The Five Butterfly Families of Crete

If you want to know a little more about the fascinating world of insects then you can't do better than to start with butterflies. They're colourful, reasonably easy to tell apart and they don't bite. What is more there are only six families, at least five of which are present here on Crete and if you are lucky, as I was recently, you can see representatives of all five in one day. So here's my guide to the five butterfly families of Crete.

1 The Whites and Sulphurs (Pieridae family)

The Cleopatra Gonepteryx cleopatra

I guess that we're all familiar with the Cabbage White (Pieris brassicae) and its little sibling the Small White (Pieris rapae) but next time take a closer look; you may be observing a Bath White (Pontia edusa) which has a mottled green underwing. On my trek around the hills near Tylissos to the west of Heraklion I came across two of the sulphurs: The Clouded Yellow (Colias croecus) and this one, the Cleopatra (Gonepteryx cleopatra) with its very distinctive wing shape.

2 The Swallowtails (Papilionidae family)

Scarce Swallowtail, Iphiclides podalirius

The Old World Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) is a common sight of spring and summer here in Crete with its bold, bright black and yellow markings and its trailing tails, like those of the swallow but look out also for this one; the Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) with the zebra stripes.

3 The Four Footed Butterflies (Nymphalidae family)

Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina

These are easy to recognise at rest as they appear to only have four legs. The front two are foreshortened; a bit like those of a Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur. Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui) and Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta) are in this group along with the vast majority of the brown butterflies that you are likely to come across (particularly the medium and large ones) such as this Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina).

4 The Gossamer Winged Butterflies (Lycaenidae family)

Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus

Another easy group to recognise on the whole as many of them are small and blue like this Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) but you have to be quick to photograph them with their wings spread as they prefer to hold them closed above their backs. This is a good thing however as often, the only way to tell them apart is from the markings on their underwings. There are some brown butterflies in this group too such as the Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) and the female gossamer wings have a tendancy to be a bit on the brown side but they are easy to tell apart from the Nymphalidae because of their diminutive size and rapidly flitting flight patterns.

5 The Skippers (Hesperiidae family)

Lulworth Skipper, Thymelicus acteon

Now these, I'll admit, you could get confused with the Lycaenidae as they are small brown jobs. Two things to look out for with these; firstly they very often hold their hind wings away from their fore wings like this Lulworth Skipper (Thymelicus acteon) but the clincher is their antenae – they have little hooks at the end which is unique to this group.

There. Now you know all the butterfly families of Crete. In looking through the photographs there were a lot of other interesting things that I saw that day which we can chat about next time (which may or may not be next week as we're on the hospital trail again for follow-ups).

The Extra Bit

The sixth butterfly family is the Metalwings (Riodinidae) which have metallic markings on their wings. These are predominantly sub-tropical butterflies but one species is known in Europe, the Duke of Burgundy Fritillary, Hamearis lucina, but I haven't come across it in Crete.

Photographic Bit

Many of you have asked me what photographic equipment I use so for details of aperture settings, shutter speeds etc. my pictures will be on Flickr within a few days and that has all the geeky stuff.Pictures were edited with FastStone Image Viewer and combined with Microsoft Paint.

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LINKS:

Share your nature thoughts, photos and comments on Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Explore the region with the #CreteNature interactive Hiking and Nature Map

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)

The First Eden

Eden Rock, Agios Fotia, Crete, Greece

When Sir David Attenborough made one of his first nature documentaries about the Mediterranean he called it “The First Eden”, presumably on account of the marvellous variety of flora and fauna to be found here. Crete is at the heart of the eastern Mediterranean and just a couple of miles from Ferma is this sandstone outcrop called Eden Rock. It’s such a pleasant sunny day today I thought we’d climb to the top. Don’t worry, ropes and pulleys won’t be required, I know a much easier back route.

Just before we start let’s have a look around the base of the rock. There’s a little path off to the right which may prove rewarding.

Long-tailed Blue (family Lycaenidae)

Our first spotting of the day: a Long-tailed Blue. This is one of the Gossamer-winged Butterflies of the Lycaenidae family which includes Blues, Coppers and Hairstreaks. This one looks as though it’s been in a bit of a scrap but if you look closely you can see that it has emerged with one of its tails intact. There should be a corresponding one on the other wing where that tear is. The theory goes that the tails and the black markings nearby look like antennae and eyes, in other words a false head. This fools ambush predators such as spiders into attacking the wrong end giving the butterfly a chance to escape. Seems to have worked in this case.

Honey Bees (family Apidae)

There’s a drainage tunnel under the road here, just big enough to stand up in, which looks worth investigating.  No bats unfortunately and it seems to be narrowing. Oh well never mind. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze at this end but I think we can crawl through. Mind the puddle. For some reason it’s humming like an electricity sub-station.   

I think we’ve found a honey bee watering hole. Look there must be fifty bees milling about taking moisture from the green algae round the edges. This must be their equivalent of the local bar.

Buzzard (Family Accipitridae)

Onwards and upwards. 

Do you hear that “kee-oo” overhead? It seems we have a buzzard for company. There he is. We have quite a lot of them down here and Crete even has its own endemic subspecies. The Cretans call them Hare-hawks and they’re lovely birds who live for ten to fifteen years and mate for life. Luckily there are no Hooded Crows about – they mob the poor buzzards mercilessly.

Capsid Bug (Family Miridae) and Beetles

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago in ‘A Garden of Small Delights’ I mentioned that I’ve photographed more insects on Crown Daisies than on any other plant? Just look at this – four sharing the same flower! 

The large red one in the middle is a Capsid Bug, the two blue ones are Soft-winged flower beetles and I’m not sure about the green one, he’s a beetle of some kind but it’s difficult to tell with his head down like that. Quite possibly he’s another Soft-winged flower beetle but if anyone would care to enlighten me?

Sheetweb Weaver (Family Lyniphiidae)

Here’s another good plant for insect spotting, it’s a Mallow. (Big green leaves and relatively small pale purple flowers).

You see that tiny black blob in the middle of the leaf? That’s a Sheetweb weaver (not an insect but an arachnid – eight legs or more rather than six). He’s related to the little black money spiders which we always thought lucky as children because if you found one on you it meant that you were going to get a gift of money. You can just see some fine filaments near his head, that’s his sheetweb used for catching his lunch.

Bee Orchid (Family Orchidacae)

Nearly there now. You may wonder why I haven’t mentioned any of the plethora of flowers we’ve seen on our climb. Well there have been so many I’ve decided to put them all in a gallery that we can peruse later in the Naturalist’s Group at our leisure but I’ve saved one because it’s a type of flower that many people rave about. It’s an orchid. This one is a type of bee orchid, a cunning little plant that mimics the back end of a female bee so that a male bee (maybe on his way back from supping on the algae at the watering hole) tries to mate with it and gets covered in pollen for his pains. He then transfers this to another bee orchid which he also mistakes for a female bee. (It must be heady stuff, that algae water).

Rock with a view

Here we are at the top. I think that the view was worth the climb, don’t you? Below us is the beach at Agia Fotia and the inviting cool blue of the Mediterranean Sea. It really is getting rather warm this afternoon, I think that it’s time to go home and dig out the snorkelling gear. 

Until next week then – happy hunting.

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LINKS:

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Add Blog at OnToplist.com

- See more at: http://cretenature.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/a-garden-of-small-delights.html#sthash.jgJFp2W5.dpuf

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LINKS:

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

The Coleoptera Group 

Hymenopterists Forum 

Hemiptera/Heteroptera Group 

Add Blog at OnToplist.com