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splinterfaction

Italian Alpine butterflies

splinterfaction
12 years ago

Hello GardenWeb forum people, hope you're all well =)

I'm new here and this is my first post. I'm here because I recently spent some time with friends in Val Aupa in the Italian Alps back in June. I took my new HD video camera (a Sony NX5) to shoot some time-lapses of the valley. Little did I realise that the area would be so teeming with wildlife!

In the end, by far the most interesting footage I came back with was the shots of butterflies (and some bees and grasshoppers) that I managed to capture using the camera's high-speed 'smooth-slow-record' function.

I'm sure that many people here would be interested to see the footage and I thought perhaps some of you could help me identify some of the different species I captured? I know very little about Lepidopterology!

Here's the video for you to see, its available on YouTube in full 1080 HD, so please enjoy it and if you feel like posting some feedback or species names with time-indexes in the video comments section or here that would be really great =)

Here's the direct link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Jn2M1K0Eo

This footage was shot using a Sony NX5 AVCHD camera in 1080i50 using the camera's 'smooth-slow-record' function on 3second burst, end triggered.

Thank you kindly,

Krystian

Here is a link that might be useful: Italian Alpine butterflies in high-speed HD

Comments (5)

  • Ament
    12 years ago

    Krystian, I cannot help with identifying the butterflies and such but the video is just beautiful. Thank you for sharing it! :)

    ~Tina

  • ladobe
    12 years ago

    Welcome to the forum Krystian. What a wonderful video. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

    Some years ago I did some extensive rearing/field work with an Italian lep friend over a 3-4 year period. While our main work was targeting the Parnassiinae in the Alps, many other families were also done if the opportunity came up, especially the alpine species. So I'll take a shot at some determinations on the leps in your video.

    Probably the easiest will be to list them in the order they first show up on your video since some appear again more than once.

    1. Maniola, probably jurtina and a male. But there are a heck of a lot of Satyridae widespread in Europe, so just my best guess.

    2. Aporia crataegi, a widespread species found in much of the temperate Palearctic.

    3. Melanargia galathera, another species that is widespread in Europe.

    4. Zygaena trifolii, another species widespread in western, central and southern Europe.

    5. Erebia, possibly ligia or montanus. Again a guess.

    6. There is also lots of Lycaenidae widespread in Europe and the video doesn't show much to ID from... but my guess is probably a Cyaniris or Everes species.

    7. No idea on the green moth.

    Sorry I can't be more exact on some. While I have many European species in my synoptic collection and field/rearing journals, there are far more that I never did. Hope this helps a little anyway.

    Larry

  • splinterfaction
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Larry:
    Thank you so very much for your superb efforts in helping identify the species shown here. I can see I came to the right place as you seem like a real expert on the subject! I'll be updating the video with some annotations showing the species soon and I will most certainly credit you most warmly for your great contribution. Thank you most kindly mate =)

    Your time in the field studying butterflies must have been amazing. I really enjoyed shooting these ones in June and they were just a coincidental discovery. The place was just teeming with them!

    Also; thank you for your feedback Tina, I'm really glad that you're enjoying my video too =)

  • onafixedincome
    12 years ago

    I think Larry (Ladobe) is THE most experienced lepidopterist around here--and I'm very glad to see him back! :)

    I wish I could view your video--being on dialup, though, has some significant limits. :(

    Glad you had fun and that you found us!

  • ladobe
    12 years ago

    Expert? No me, not even close. Just a lot of years of being well read and well traveled doing field and rearing studies. No need at all to credit me on your video. Just call it even for sharing with the forum such a well done video. We all hope to see more of them from you.
    Larry

    (Good to hear from you lady, been awhile, not since your trip to "V" maybe.)

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