A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Melithaea varia
Small (some 4 cm wingspan), predominantly orange butterfly with white borders and black pattern - different in sexes (female in pic N°1 and male in 2 and 3). Very similar looking to Meadow fritillary, I decided on Grison because of female's pattern, which appears more darker in Grison fritillary... however I'm still not sure about that...
Common summer species in Alps and some other departments of France; here, seen in a small valley which we baptized a "Valley of butterflies" - the grassland valley is really very small, not more than 100 at its longest side and completely surrounded by a broad-leaved forest, and edged by a small and very clean stream. When we visited, grasslands were covered in a multitude of butterflies, and these fritillaries were the most numerous species - they were literary everywhere. We counted at least 8 or 9 different species, plus a multitude of other insects (bees, various bumble-bees, syrphes, dragon & damselflies etc).
No Comments