Italy | Butterfly Dreams

Italy - Amalfi Coast

Habitat of Italian Marbled White

Italian Marbled White

Melanargia arge

28th May 2025. Amalfi coast. Italy.

A touristy holiday to Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast gave me the opportunity to pick up a new life-tick in the form of the delightful Italian Marbled White. I had read that this species is hard to photograph due to its habit of flying relentlessly up and down rocky slopes, but I got lucky with several opportunities to get up close. This is a very white and distinctive "marbled white" in flight, easily distinguished from the closely related M.galathea with which it was flying. Both uppersides and undersides are delightful!

Piedmont Anomalous Blue

Polyommatus humedasae

9th July 2026. Aosta Valley. Italy.

I visited Aosta in the company of Bob Lambert in early July 2026. We had made a long diversion from a holiday in Switzerland for the express purpose of seeing this species, an IUCN "Critically Endangered" butterfly restricted to a handful of sites in the Aosta Valley. It took two hours of searching in blistering heat before we succeeded in locating this male, but he was well worth the effort! A true heavyweight rarity added to my list. I was ridiculously happy to see and photograph this subtle beauty at one of its last remaining sites. Once we had found him, he was very amenable, returning repeatedly to the same small area of nectar in a shady spot half way down a steep slope. An unforgettable experience!