Hello from us all here at Team Mariposa!
The autumn equinox has been and gone in the past week, and the nights are drawing in once more. It’s getting to that time of year when a pot of soup on the stove feels like a good lunch option, and before long it’ll be time to consider pulling those woolly jumpers out of their summer hibernation. Not to mention standing outside at night and listening for the first Redwing of the autumn to pass, unseen, high overhead in the darkness. Or kicking through fallen leaves. Or looking for fungi. All in all, we love autumn!
We’re also looking forward to next year – there’s nothing like the prospect of some time spent enjoying orchids, butterflies, and other wildlife to light up the shorter days of autumn and winter that lie ahead. Our 2027 tours have been filling fast for some time now – sixteen of our portfolio of tours for next year are already fully booked, but fear not, we’ve still plenty of exciting destinations and great itineraries that still have some remaining availability. For those 2027 tours that are already fully booked, we’ve now put the 2028 editions of the tours on our website. You’ll find them all listed on the handy Tour Calendar page of the site.
As always, we’re running our Early Bird booking deal, meaning anyone who books a tour for 2027 or beyond before 1 December of the current year can enjoy a £150 discount off the list price of the tour. And of course, prior Mariposa guests always get an additional £50 loyalty discount on top of that.
Naturally, all of our tours generate a donation to conservation charity. They have done since day one of the Mariposa journey – that commitment and support is fundamental to us here at Team Mariposa, and we know it’s important to you too. Every butterfly tour generates a donation to Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE), and every orchid tour a donation to the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI). Both are fabulous organisations whose science-led conservation makes meaningful impacts across Europe and close to home too, and it’s good to hear that our support helps them:
“We are very grateful for your support at this critical time for Europe’ s butterflies and moths. This year, together with partners in almost every country, we produced a new Red List of European Butterflies, and the moth version is due this autumn. We are gearing up to take more action” [Butterfly Conservation Europe]
This point in the year is also a time for a little reflection on the season just gone. We must take this opportunity not only to thank our guests for choosing to join us in 2026 – a decision we don’t take for granted – but also for their feedback after their tours. That really does help us to refine what we’re doing and, as guests who’ve travelled with us for years can attest, we really do pay attention to it, and make changes where we can to improve your holiday experience. As ever, our mantra is to treat guests as we’d like to be treated ourselves.
And what of those 2026 tours? Forgive us if we share a few highlights here!
Our spring orchid tours uncovered a jewel-box of delights, starting with Orchids of Tenerife early in the year, where our guests were treated to a particularly fine show of Tenerife Giant Orchid Himantoglossum metlesicsianum. Orchids of Rhodes, one of our flagship tours, was as ever both a tremendous success and over-subscribed! We ran three tours there this spring, a level of coverage that was rewarded with a host of new sites, new species, and some outrageous hybrid orchid finds. Any orchid hybrid that involves a Mirror Orchid Ophrys speculum as one of the parents is always going to be an attractive proposition, but combining those genes with the rich colours of Cretan Bee Orchid Ophrys cretica created something more than the sum of its parts – a great find by tour leader Sarah.
Our Italian orchid tours went from strength to strength, with the incomparable Andrea Corso leading both Orchids of the Gargano Peninsula and Orchids of Sicily in his Sicilian homeland. Our timing was spot on to catch the very best of both destinations, with a slightly later date for Sicily ensuring that we could enjoy the first flowering for the year of one of Europe’s true orchid aristocrats, Ophrys lacaitae. Andrea will be leading both of these popular tours again next year – he’d love to see you there.
As the spring moved into summer the tempo of our butterfly tours picked up. We spread our wings into North Africa with great success, Mariposa founder David and Michele Vigano and their Marvellous Morocco group finding some of the region’s rarest and most sought-after species – including the tinsel-clad beauties that are the Cigaritis silver lines. Allard’s Silver Line Cigaritis allardi is pure eye candy in butterfly form!
We love Kate Humble – she’s a friend of both Mariposa founder Jon and Team Mariposa as a whole, and we were delighted she could join us for not one but two tours this year. Kate’s brilliant company and so much fun to travel with, and our groups in the Hautes Pyrenees and Montes Universales this year were treated to her fabulous stories, wicked sense of humour, and sharp eyes – we were all indebted to her dedication tracking down Gavarnie Ringlet Erebia gorgone for us in July. As for the total solar eclipse our group enjoyed in Montes this year – an unforgettable, once in a lifetime experience, made all the more special for Kate’s insights and hard work ensuring everything ran seamlessly on the day. Watch this space for an announcement very soon of where you can join Kate and Mariposa in 2028…
Speaking of ringlets, the prospect of seeing a suite of very special Erebia was at the forefront of our minds during our inaugural Butterflies of the Hohe Tauern tour in July. The Austrian Alps duly delivered – both breathtakingly beautiful scenery and warm hospitality, and over a dozen species of Erebia, including all of our targets, and some surprises too. If anyone had claimed we’d see 15 species of Erebia alone during our week there, including a new colony of Swiss Brassy Ringlet Erebia tyndarus in addition to the highly sought-after and endemic White Speck Ringlet Erebia claudina, we’d have said that was scarcely credible… but it really did happen, much to our group’s collective joy. We’re very much looking forward to our return there next year, and in 2028 – this tour looks set to be a popular fixture for years to come.
We made a significant find during our last butterfly tour of 2025 in the form of Desert Babul Blue Azanus ubaldus on the coast of Andalusia within sight of Africa – this was one of the very first mainland European records of this generally sub-Saharan African species. We were keen to see whether we’d be similarly blessed this year on our Autumn Exotica in Andalusia tour… Sadly, we didn’t find any more Desert Babul Blue – though we did find lycaenid eggs on the larval foodplant, which may bode well for the future – but thanks to up-to-date information from a kind friend, we were treated to another pioneering and outrageously rare in a European context butterfly – African Babul Blue Azanus jesous! Our time in the field with this beautiful gem allowed us to witness several females ovipositing, and to survey the area in some detail, greatly expanding the known parameters of the colony. While there are never guarantees with an African species pioneering at the very limits of its world range, we can’t wait to see what our 2027 tour finds there by way of either of these special babul blues…
None of these wonderful moments would be possible without the great leaders who are at the beating heart of Mariposa. From your feedback, we know you value them as much as we do! Having leaders who not only know their stuff where wildlife is concerned, but are also friendly, organised, capable and fun is part of what we consider essential for a tour to run smoothly and enjoyably.
This past year has seen two new leaders join Team Mariposa, and in the European butterfly world they really are peerless – one of the founding fathers of Butterfly Conservation Europe, Chris van Swaay; and Spain’s preeminent butterfly scientist, Miguel López Munguira. We’re truly honoured that both have chosen to work with us, and you’ll find them co-leading existing and developing new tours from 2027 onwards. Miguel cut his teeth with us in Andalusia earlier this autumn – his delight with those African Babul Blues was palpable!
We’re delighted to announce in this newsletter one more new leader in Team Mariposa – our good friend Teppo Salmela is now part of the team. Teppo is a highly acclaimed nature photographer and, having specialised in butterflies in his Finnish homeland and across Europe for the past 20 years, his knowledge of butterfly ecology and identification is truly superb. His passion is infectious, and he’s looking forward to sharing that with our guests for years to come. In 2028 he’ll be leading a number of tours, including Spring Butterflies of Marvellous Morocco, and Spring Butterflies in Abruzzo. And in the meantime, in 2027 he’ll be working with Mariposa founder David Moore developing some new tours…
Ah, new tours… shall we talk about those? We ran a number of new tours in the past year, and are delighted to have more new itineraries on offer in 2027. Our leaders have undertaken recces for several new tours for 2028 that we’ll be launching very soon indeed, and we’ve more butterfly and orchid recces in the pipeline next year that we hope bear fruit for 2028. As a wildlife tour company run by experienced tour leaders, we consider it essential and responsible that we ‘road-test’ our tours ourselves before we offer them to our guests. Who wants to entrust themselves to a holiday where the company in question has never met the tour leaders, let alone tried the itinerary for themselves? We wouldn’t fancy ‘winging it’ like that, and we’re pretty sure you wouldn’t either…
So watch this space for imminent announcements of new tours and, in the meantime, if you don’t already follow us on social media, you’ll find we’re active on all the usual platforms (Twitter/X, BlueSky, Facebook, and Instagram). As David and Jon steadfastly refuse to dance or otherwise humiliate themselves and/or traumatise viewers, we’re giving TikTok a body-swerve!
That’s this autumn newsletter drawing to a close now. With our Early Bird deal in mind, do curl up on the sofa with a cuppa and have a look at our Tour Calendar and see if any of our 2027 or 2028 tours appeal. If you’ve any questions about them, do pick up the phone and give us a call, or drop us an email – we’re only too happy to talk and answer enquiries, or generally have a good chat! Remember, most of those tours are just £150 deposit to secure your place, and should life get in the way and your plans change, we’re only too happy to immediately refund your deposit. That’s how we’d like to be treated, so it’s how we treat our guests too.
(Speaking of which, two of our guests on the 2027 edition of Orchids of Basilicata, Campania & Puglia have just moved their booking to the 2028 edition of the tour – so that means there are now two places available on this highly sought-after tour in 2027 – you heard it here first! Full details here on the website…)
Wishing you healthy and wildlife-filled days in what remains of 2026,
David & Jon, and the rest of Team Mariposa
