Les Mars Changeants

For almost one month I'm in the Vosges and since the day of arrival I see emperors every day. The first day, I was working on my laptop and had a teams meeting, two Purple Emperors landed on the windowsill. Every evening I see at least two Lesser Purple Emperors in the crown of the big tree next to the pond/house enjoining the sun and chasing after each other. A few weeks ago a fox had pooped on the path near my house and the emperors came down:

Two lesser purple emperors (taken with wide angle lens) on fox poop

So I asked a friend, who lives nearby, to bring me some fresh dog poop. Dog poop attracts a lot of butterflies for about two days. Every two/three days I asked for more dog poop. As it was very warm I kept the poop wet and a lot of butterflies came to drink. As the Lesser Purple Emperors are very big butterflies too, I often had to look twice which emperor was landed on the poop.
The Lesser Purple Emperor is more common in 'my' valley than the Purple Emperor but I succeeded to took some photo's of their hindwing/eye spots:

Apatura iris - Purple Emperor spots upperside hindwing

Apatura ilia - Lesser Purple Emperor spots upperside hindwing

All the butterflies which came down were male butterflies; recognizable by the blue sheen on the wings and they all had signs of 'scratches' from their habitat defending behavior high in the trees. 
After four dry years/summers I'm glad that both Emperor species are still in 'my' valley! During my next visit I will plant one or two common aspens, not only for the Mars Changeants but to attract the very rare Poplar Admiral....although I do not know if this species occur in the Vosges....you never know!