# Photos from Italy, Sep 2013



## moloch05 (Sep 27, 2013)

My wife, younger daughter and I are at the end of a three week holiday to Italy. It has been lots of fun and we have seen so many interesting things. At the moment, we are staying in Amalfi but we start our return journey tomorrow. Amalfi is my favourite place in Italy and it would have to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The coastline is rugged and the little town of Amalfi is just stunning with interesting, old buildings of such a distinctive style. I will start with town and habitat shots to give a feel for the area. As always, this is more of a natural history report rather than one of reptiles only.

Amalfi



























The Amalfi Coast:













Ravello is a village high above Amalfi. We walked there on a few occasions. It is great exercise with several hundred steps up the steep hillside. The views from the top were superb.









The Amalfi area has an excellent trail system. I walked these daily especially when my wife and daughter decided to shop.













Wall Geckos (_Tarentola mauritanica_): These were large, day-active geckos. I usually found them on the shaded sides of rock walls.









I think that these are Italian Wall Lizards (_Podarcis sicula_) although Common Wall Lizards (_Podarcis muralis_) may also be possible. These were abundant lizards. At times, I would see 10 or more at the same time on rock walls. Their colour and pattern varied greatly.

































Western Whip Snake (_Hierophis viridiflavus_): I saw these snakes daily. They were fast and no doubt would capture the wall lizards as prey. They defend themselves with vigour and my hands were bleeding once I finished photographing these snakes. The first shot below was of a juvenile and the second was of an adult.





















Southern Comma (_Polygonia egea_): I saw this interesting small nymphalid only twice.









Painted Lady (_Vanessa cardui_): This was a common species.





Silver-washed Fritillary (_Argynnis paphia_): One of the commonest butterflies at the moment. They sometimes were attracted in large numbers to a particular flower as is obvious in one of the shots below.

















... females were darker and more heavily spotted than the males.






Southern White Admiral (_Limenitis reducta_): Not common but I saw it a few times.










Two-tailed Pasha (_Charaxes jasius_): This is my new favourite butterfly. They were pugnacious creatures that chased any other large butterfly that approached the dead trees where they stood guard. They would even fly at my face if I walked within a couple of meters of their perches.














Wall Browns (_Lasiommata megera_): A common small satyrinae.










Lesser Woodland Grayling (_Hipparchia genava_): common on this trip.








... no!






Tree Greyling (_Hipparchia statilinus_): A very common species in the hills.










Greyling (_Hipparchia semele_)?: I saw this species a few times. It was not as common as the above two Greylings.






Clouded Yellow (_Coleus crocea_): A few were seen every day.










Berger's Clouded Yellows (_Coleus facariensis_)?: Only seen a couple of times. 





Bath Whites (_Pontia edusa_): Seen a few times.










Small White (_Pieris rapae_)?: This butterfly was smaller than the species illustrated below.





Large White (_Pieris brassicae_): As the name implies, this was a large _Pieris_. I saw them several times.














Common Blues (_Polyommatus icarus_)?





Small Copper (_Lycaena phlaeus_): I only found one of these pretty lycaenids.









Large Skipper (_Ochlodes sylvanus_)?: Only a few were encountered.










I will add more shots later from Como, Florence and Assisi.


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## Bushman (Sep 27, 2013)

You've taken some great shots there David. What a beautiful place to have a holiday.
I suppose it's starting to cool down there, just as it's starting to heat up down under.
Thanks for sharing your account of a gorgeous part of the world with us.


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## sd1981 (Sep 27, 2013)

Some wonderful pics of a spectacular corner of the world... Italy is next on my list of places to go... Thanks for sharing...


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## crocodilenik (Sep 27, 2013)

Hey mate!


Nice photos ... 

This Podarcis species are really hard to tell apart, though I think what you have here are P. sicula, mostly males.... wonderful! Podarcis muralis are not green nor do they have blue "gems" on their flanks. Amongst thousand or so P. muralis I have seen so far there was only one with blue speckles ...

Here is an example of a subspecies of muralis in our Primorska region here in slovenia (only kilometers from Italy)


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## Tristan.C (Sep 27, 2013)

Woah... Absolutely speechless, one day, one day... 
Hey, umm what type of camera were you using? They are some UNREAL shots you got there :3


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## thals (Sep 27, 2013)

Ahh the old mother country  Some absolutely beautiful shots of the landscape and animals David. Did you get to see any vipers or western green lizards? My favourites of the country


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## moloch05 (Sep 28, 2013)

Bushman,
Thanks. The weather is still warm but temps were dropping. Days were usually 23C or so with night temps at 17C. It was very pleasant in the evening to sit in the main piazza and have a glass of wine while taking in the soft lights and music.


Thanks, sd1981.



Nik,
Thanks very much for the info on separating these species and the photo. I have shots of what I assume were muralis from Como. Do you post photos of your finds? I would love to see more shots of the Euro herps.



Tristan,
Thanks. I use a Canon 7D with several lenses. Tamron 180mm macro for butterflies and lizards, Canon 100mm macro for snakes, Canon 50mm and 35mm for places and Sigma 12-20 wide angle for habitats.


Thanks, Thals. The Amalfi area of Italy is especially good and my favourite part of the country. Unfortunately, no luck with either vipers or green lizards. I watched for both but had not success.

- - - Updated - - -

More Italian Wall Lizards:





































first light:






Duomo of Amalfi at night:





- - - Updated - - -

ASSISI, UMBRIA





Habitat was a mixture of secondary growth, farmland and olive orchards.






Italian Wall Lizards (_Podarcis siculus_)


















Swallowtail:







FLORENCE, TOSCANA

no herp shots here, just a few of the incredible buildings.

Duomo of Florence:

















Ponte Vecchio






COMO: This is a beautiful place in the north of Italy.













habitat:





Common Wall Lizards (_Podarcis muralis_)





















Lesser Woodland Grayling (_Hipparchia genava_): These would lay flat in the leaf litter when sunning in the early morning.






Fritillary. I am not certain of the species. There are several similar possibilities. The females looked quite different to Silver-washed Fritillaries that I saw in Amalfi.









Chequered Blue (_Scolitantides orion_)





Speckled Wood (_Pararge aegeria_):


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## naivepom (Sep 28, 2013)

crocodilenik said:


> Hey mate!
> 
> 
> Nice photos ...
> ...



Weirdly, _most _of the P. muralis we get here have blue speckles on their flanks.


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## crocodilenik (Sep 28, 2013)

naivepom: where have you seen this P. muralis, I mean those with blue speckles?

I see them daily here in Slovenia and as I have said before, only one had blue speckles, yet they were not on the flanks but near cloaca. 
And oddly enough, the vent was not red as usually seen in males, but yellow. I assumed it was not entirely mature. 


Again, Podarcis spp. are , at least for me, pretty much the same ...


moloch05: on you request some photos in the field herping section

photos in the field herping section


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## Darlyn (Sep 28, 2013)

Outstanding mate, thanks for sharing.


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## naivepom (Sep 29, 2013)

crocodilenik said:


> naivepom: where have you seen this P. muralis, I mean those with blue speckles?
> 
> I see them daily here in Slovenia and as I have said before, only one had blue speckles, yet they were not on the flanks but near cloaca.
> And oddly enough, the vent was not red as usually seen in males, but yellow. I assumed it was not entirely mature.
> ...



Jersey, UK - just had a quick dig through my pics and have attached a pretty classic example below. The variability is massive with this species here with some being bright green, some being emerald some being blue all over.

View attachment 297705


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