The following is an account by Paul Browning of his trip to Spain in search of the Spanish Greenish Black-tip (Euchloe bazae) butterfly.
In mid March 2016 I went to Spain to look for the Spanish Greenish Black-tip (Euchloe bazae).
I had seen and photographed this Spanish endemic in 2001 in the Hoya de Baza, Granada and was now hoping to see it in its other locality in Los Monegros, a region where the borders of Zaragoza, Huesca and Lleida meet. Here it flies as subspecies iberae.
I stayed for seven nights in the town of Caspe, where I took a single room at the friendly family run Hostal Restaurante El Surtidor (+34 976 639 453) a place I can recommend to anyone wanting to stay a while in the region.
More Spanish butterflies can be seen in the Spanish butterfly gallery
The weather during most of my stay was not conducive to butterfly activity and for the first four days I saw very few butterflies and no Greenish Black-tips.
The following two days were sunny but there was still a cool NW wind blowing. On each of those days I probably saw no more than 5 or 6 of the butterflies, all on a prominent ridge where most of the Boleum asperum, the caterpillar food plant of the ssp. was found, and the only female seen on both days was on the hilltop.
Hilltopping activity began at about 11am. On both days at around 2.30pm, a male that I spent a lot of time watching settled on a short robust plant, drew its antennae together and lowered its forewings into a roosting position. None were seen flying after about 2.45pm despite it still being relatively warm, although a Scarce Swallowtail, a few Wall Browns and 2 Swallowtails remained active until about 4pm on both days.
