French Fritillary ID

[Matsukaze]

Is this Heath Fritillary, or something else? Photographed 14 September 2019 at a motorway service station in northern Vendée, France. It was in the company of a good number of Clouded Yellows, also Wall, Common Blue, Brown Argus, Small Heath and Meadow Brown.

[David M]

Have to say that looks more like a Meadow Fritillary to me, Chris.

[Padfield]

Agreed - meadow fritillary, Melitaea parthenoides.

Guy

[MrSp0ck]

Looks like a female and on Plantain.

[Matsukaze]

Thanks folks - I think this is a new species for me.

I think the same would have been true of athalia, as well - now that the southern forms are reckoned to be a separate species the only candidate I have is another one from a French motorway service station, the one north of Lyon with the giant steel chicken sculpture - which I think falls within the range of athalia. I know the species occurs in the same county as me and I have even run moth traps on a couple of its sites, but I have never really been in the right place at the right time for it - something I really ought to put right.

[Padfield]

Thanks folks - I think this is a new species for me.

I think the same would have been true of athalia, as well - now that the southern forms are reckoned to be a separate species the only candidate I have is another one from a French motorway service station, the one north of Lyon with the giant steel chicken sculpture - which I think falls within the range of athalia. I know the species occurs in the same county as me and I have even run moth traps on a couple of its sites, but I have never really been in the right place at the right time for it - something I really ought to put right.

The distributions of nevadensis and athalia are still rather unclear, the problem being that there seems to be a very large area of overlap and/or hybridisation. The location north of Lyon you describe is in this area - and so is Switzerland. In Switzerland I certainly see individuals that seem morphologically nevadensis and others that seem morphologically athalia. The latest Swiss distribution maps show both species present. I know they have recently done a fairly comprehensive genetic barcoding project in Switzerland and I suspect these maps are accurate - so it seems that if there really are two species here, they do overlap.

The Swiss map for athalia is here: https://lepus.unine.ch/carto/index.php? ... &year=2000

The map for nevadensis is here: https://lepus.unine.ch/carto/index.php? ... &year=2000

Guy

[Matsukaze]

I may be misinterpreting those maps, but it looks like nevadensis is the cold-adapted species in Switzerland!

Which leads me to wonder whether the British specimens of Heath Fritillary are truly athalia, or nevadensis, or a weird form of something else. I presume that someone has done the relevant research...