David Element
Wildlife Photography and Digital Video Images
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Butterflies 112 – Red-Underwing Skippers
RED-UNDERWING SKIPPER Spialia
sertorius
RED-UNDERWING
SKIPPER Spialia sertorius
·
Recent molecular studies have split the Red
Underwing Skipper Spialia sertorius
into five different species within a species complex that are
indistinguishable in the field as there are no consistent differences between
their already variable markings. An excellent account of this division has been
provided by Matt Rowlings here: http://www.eurobutterflies.com/sp/sertorius.php. So, the
above butterflies are Spialia sp. as they
possess four stacked white markings on their forewings (a characteristic of
this genus), but classifying them unequivocally to species is not possible,
particularly as their undersides could not be photographed. Charming little
butterflies nonetheless! The second photograph was taken in Toscana (Tuscany),
Italy and the other image has been scanned from an old transparency.
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