Erynnis tages

Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages)

2024 photographs highlighted in yellow. Click on any photograph to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.


29087_male_Var_4May12	33379_male_Hautes-Alpes_4Jul13	45890_male_Var_20Apr19	51763_male_Cher_17Jul23

49027_male_UK, Buckinghamshire_24Apr22	49048_male_UK, Buckinghamshire_24Apr22	49054_male_UK, Buckinghamshire_24Apr22	52374_male_Alpes-Maritimes_1Jul24

52682_female_Savoie_4Jul24	26315_female_Alpes-Maritimes_04Jul11	32463_female_Alpes-Maritimes_1Jun13	35231_female_Alpes-Maritimes_3Jun14

18983_male_Lot-et-Garonne_23Aug09	39220_male_Lot-et-Garonne_26Jul15

A butterfly that lives up to its name when old and worn but can be quite nicely marked when fresh. It can easily be mistaken for a moth, and indeed many day-flying moths are more brightly marked and butterfly-like than tages.

UK specimens seem to vary little and merit the word "Dingy" in its name, whereas I have found that specimens from France, albeit from a wider geographical range and widely different terrain, can vary quite dramatically. Only 29087 of the French specimens could be taken for an English tages.

The sexes are not easy to tell apart, but size (the female is larger) is a good indicator and the female is more strongly marked especially with a series of upf white marginal dots.

It is usually encountered in singles, I find, but quite frequently, even at high altitudes.

ref	sex	observations	alt. m
29087	M	a male with very little contrast to the markings, so the dingy description is for once quite applicable.	185
33379	M	a nice dark fresh male.	2100
45890	M	a male, rather drab colouring with little contrast.	220
51763	M	I suspect this is a male from its territorial behaviour. When fresh, they sometimes have this very appealing grey-brown colouring, not dingy at all.	170
49027	M	a rather colder brown colour, with quite strong markings.	160
49048	M	*a softer brown colour, with less contrast, although quite fresh so not faded through ageing, and typical of UK tages.*	160
49054	M	*more contrasted than usual for UK tages, and really not dingy at all.*	160
52374	M	a crisply marked fresh male, also not dingy at all.	1550
52682	F	a rather unusual female (I assume from the body length and shape) with rather indistinct markings and a brownish sheen, although the margins indicate that it is fresh, so the appearance is not the result of ageing. It was seen in Savoie, further north in the Alpes than those from the Hautes-Alpes and the PACA region.	2090
26315	F	a very fresh dark female.	600
32463	F	a rather worn female.	1085
35231	F	a particularly drab pale grey female.	1080
18983	M	a male underside, quite a light brown, I feel, but the underside is so rarely seen so it is hard to say whether this is untypical.	80
39220	M	a male in typical territorial pose.	100