A widespread (relative to the others) Pyrgus, although I rarely find it in more than ones and twos. It has a brown upperside ground colour, often with a sandy flush in the upf basal region. The female often seems to be a sandy yellow-brown colour. It has a fairly strongly marked upf and uph, the male being more strongly marked than the female, as is usual for most Pyrgus. The male uph discal mark is usually noticeably white and of characteristic shape, similar to an old-fashioned wooden clothes peg, similar to the Grizzled Skipper (P. malvae) mark at the bottom end, but rather longer.

It is of average size for Pyrgus and the female often has a rather rounded wing shape, I find.

Its distribution is across most of eastern France, particularly in the south and in the Pyrénées. It is generally a lower altitude species than its cousins, not occurring at altitudes above 1700m.

The specimens from the Pyrénées are rather problematical: having visited this site in 2015, the "armoricanus" from the particular location at 1600m are somewhat different to those found at lower altitudes, 1600m being near the top end of the altitude range (although that might explain why they appear different). The only feasible alternative is the subspecies of Large Grizzled Skipper (P. alveus accretus).

The individuals from 2015 are quite variable and may even not all be armoricanus as noted in the specific comments below. Revisiting the same site in 2017, the underside shots of both 44133 and 44137 show a weak unh s2 discal mark would tend to point away from armoricanus, although both may be within range for this species. The problem is that there is very limited information available on accretus in terms of the strength of markings and the extent of their variability. An internet search on accretus has the first link as the alveus page of this site. Not helpful! The search reveals virtually no images.

My Dutch friend Peter Groenendijk, with whom I made the 2015 trip, believes they are accretus: http://www.anythingbutcommon.nl/Pyrgus-alveus.html.

In his latest work "La Vie des Papillons" (http://diatheo.weebly.com/la-vie-des-papillons.html), Lafranchis says that accretus flies in the foothills of the Pyrénées; quite where he means by that I do not know, but I would not have described this location as "foothills".

It may be that all of these potential accretus are, in fact, such. But until someone undertakes a genitalia or DNA study, it remains an open question.

observations

a male, from the visible but rather weak and strange abdominal hair tufts at each side. The warm yellow-brown colour and upf sandy appearance especially in the basal region is rather unusual for armoricanus, which may just be geographical variation, a factor that books sometimes gloss over. The markings are rather on the light side for this species but probably within range.

a very fresh female, with a beautiful rich dark brown colouring. The markings on the upf and uph look exactly right for female armoricanus, and I am fairly confident this is what it is, despite the absence of a upf sandy basal flush. The only options are Olive Skipper (P. serratulae) or Cinquefoil Skipper (P. cirsii) and there are good reasons why it is neither of these. Rosy Grizzled Skipper (P. onopordi) is an option but the upf cell spot does not seem strong enough for onopordi. The right upf cell spot (which does not appear to be symmetrical with the left one) is in the shape of a question mark, maybe mocking those who try to identify it.

a female, with the characteristic sandy flush, especially pronounced in the basal region of the forewing. The uph markings are rather diffuse and pale yellow-brown.

meeting all the criteria for armoricanus. The deep sandy brown unh ground colour and yellow veins are almost sufficient to identify armoricanus alone. All of the markings match the classic armoricanus almost 100%.