The Butterflies of the Auvergne

Four départements comprise the Auvergne namely Allier, Puy de Dôme, Cantal and Haute Loire.

Auzers

Nice wooded valley below the town. Sixty species in the first two weeks of August, including:

Col de Auray

At 1200m a potential good spot, quite heavily farmed though. A quick look round gave:

Species:	Scientific:	First sighting:	Last sighting:
Large white	Pieris brassicae	29-Jul	29-Jul
Silver washed fritillary	Argynnis paphia	29-Jul	29-Jul
Dark-green fritillary	Argynnis aglaja	29-Jul	29-Jul
High brown fritillary	Argynnis adippe	29-Jul	29-Jul
Queen of spain fritillary	Issoria lathonia	29-Jul	29-Jul
Small pearl-bordered fritillary	Clossiana selene	29-Jul	29-Jul
Arran brown	Erebia ligea	29-Jul	29-Jul
Scotch argus	Erebia aethiops	29-Jul	29-Jul
Large wall brown	Lasiommata maera	29-Jul	29-Jul
Silver-spotted skipper	Hesperia comma	29-Jul	29-Jul

 La Jaquette

Situated on the road from *** to *** in the Valee de Rentieres this is a potentially great site. Great sooty satyr were flying in August. Apollo and Chequered blue are also present on the site. Access is difficult due to vegetation and crags (and permission should be sought at the Maison des Landes just up the road?)

Aubrac

Large area, grassland, rough hilly mountains to 1250m, forest and peat bogs.

Interesting species include. Marsh fritillary, Alcon blue and Cranberry fritillary.

Sagnes de las Godivelle

A small reserve near to the village of Godivelle. One notable highlight is the Violet copper.

Puy de Dôme

Mountain range up to 1465m altitude. Many butterflies including Clouded apollo and Apollo.

© All pictures in these pages copyright to Simon Coombes. Permission must be sought and obtained for any use.