It was March 2024 when Jon Dunn and David Moore first offered me the chance to co-guide the inaugural Mariposa Nature Tours trip to Serbia, 15 months hence. I jumped at the chance straight away. The southeastern parts of Serbia are renowned as hallowed turf for European butterflies. So, on 24th June 2025, it was with a slight nervousness that I caught the relatively short flight from Heathrow to Belgrade. Would the butterflying be as good as I had anticipated?
The lead guide for the trip was János Oláh, who had carried out three previous trips and preparatory recces in Serbia at similar times of year. We were joined by nine guests.
Our first full day saw us travel gradually from the Belgrade area to the ski resorts in Stara Planina, stopping off at numerous sites. Here we had our first taste of the sheer biodiversity of butterflies. Not just in terms of species, but also in terms of numbers of individual butterflies, of any species. As an example, Large Chequered Skipper was a species we ran fast to take photographs of that first half hour. Later in the week, we realised that they are very common in Serbia, and we nearly ignored them!
The puddling for minerals of many butterfly species was something we’d all seen before elsewhere in Europe. But perhaps not to such an extent as any of us saw in Serbia. So much so, at some sites, some guests stayed locked in the same spot, for over 90 minutes, such was the joy of the variety of what could be seen on some puddles.
One of the highlights for many of us was seeing Lesser Lattice Brown. This is a very rare, localised and hard to see butterfly. We found it in two locations, the most special being what appeared to be a lek of six males that ended up being very confiding. Other personal highlights were Bog Fritillary, Violet Copper, and Russian Heath on the Stara Planina plateau, in the middle part of the week.
I can’t fail to mention False Comma, the showpiece species of the trip. The group saw it in three locations, they are unmistakeable! Our total species count for the week was 131 species, two short of the record number of butterfly species seen on any of our 8-day European butterfly trips. Our day record was 99 species on Day 4, shattering the normal 50 to 75 daily species seen on most trips.
Finally, it is worth saying that, from a cultural perspective, Serbia felt like most other European countries. I suspect some people still associate Serbia with the terrible Balkan wars of the 1990s. Over 25 years have passed since then, and the people of Serbia welcomed our group with friendly faces and open arms, wherever we went. The hotels were clean and comfortable, and the food was simple and tasty.
So, what are you waiting for? Join János and David Moore in Serbia in June 2026. You won’t regret it!
False Comma & Summer Butterflies of Serbia 2026
Paul Selby, Mariposa Tour Leader, July 2025
[Images kindly shared by and © our good friend Clive Burrows]
