Swiss Brassy Ringlet (Erebia tyndarus)

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2022 photographs highlighted in blue. Click on any photograph to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.

23071_male_Valais, Switzerland_24Jul10 22883_male_Valais, Switzerland_22Jul10 22936_male_Valais, Switzerland_22Jul10 13098_female_Valais, Switzerland_17Jul08
   
13095_male_Valais, Switzerland_17Jul08 13029_female_Valais, Switzerland_16Jul08    

Technically perhaps no longer a butterfly of France, although there are historical records of tyndarus occurring in the French Alpes, and Lafranchis includes it in his recent French work. These specimens were seen in Switzerland, where it seemed quite common. Perhaps, given its name, this is not too much of a surprise.

Although not really captured in these photographs (maybe apart from 23071), tyndarus has a noticeable brassy sheen on the forewing often visible in flight. The upf red post-discal band is very wide in s4 and s5 but narrows sharply below that. The two ocelli (and it has been known with one or no ocelli)  are quite small and the s4 ocellus is usually much smaller and displaced externally, almost pushing at the edge of the band.
ref sex

observations

alt. m
23071 M

a male, with quite large ocelli almost in line with each other. The brassy sheen shows up quite nicely here.

2200
22883 M

a male, with an unusually wide red upf post-discal band extending from s2 to s6.

2150
22936 M

a male, illustrating the variability of tyndarus. The shape of the red upf post-discal band is not that untypical.

2150
13098 F

a female, based on body shape, lighter brown ground colour and larger, redder, upf post-discal band, nicely broken up by the veins.

1800
13095 M

a male, as indicated by the darker and strongly contrasting bands. It really is quite a hairy little beast.

1800
13029 F

a female, quite a good match for the illustration in T&L, and the visible body shape rather helpfully confirms this.

1700

 

23071_male_Valais, Switzerland_24Jul10

 

22883_male_Valais, Switzerland_22Jul10

 

22936_male_Valais, Switzerland_22Jul10

 

13098_female_Valais, Switzerland_17Jul08

 

13095_male_Valais, Switzerland_17Jul08

 

13029_female_Valais, Switzerland_16Jul08