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Melitaea ornata
thank you bayucca for identifying this butterfly. Your efforts identifying many of my butterflies is really appreciated. I'm glad I was able to provide a clear photo so the spots and markings were easy to see, to make your work easier! beautiful butterfly, though...
That was one of the most complicated and confusing ID I probably ever have done! Extremely confusing taxonomy! From some authors this one is the same as Melitaea telona, which might be OK fpr the eastern part of the Mediterranean, but I think not the one from France, which is only found in a small part around the departement of Var. So a very little bit outside of your area. But in my eyes there is no other species possible if you look at the spots and markings. The corresponding subspecies would be Melitaea ornata emipunica (Tshikolovets 2011).
I would not really recommend to read all the stories about this one, you would be really confused...
http://eol.org/data_objects/19840234