Melanic fritillary

[Padfield]

I'm guessing this is a meadow fritillary. Sadly, it had been hit by a car and couldn't fly properly. But it is an interesting specimen. I've never seen this extent of melanism in meadow frit, though I have seen it in false heath frit (the last picture below). I found it today in my village of Huémoz, at about 1000m in the Swiss Alps.







The next one is a false heath fritillary from considerable altitude in Switzerland, a few years ago.



Guy

[Paul]

That's rather unusual... the first one is quite asymmetrical, I thought variants were usually still symmetrical.. is it gynand?

[Padfield]

I think it's all male, though the abdomen does look a little funny. Females are noticeably larger and have quite a different appearance (well, this has quite a special appearance too, so that's not very decisive!!).

Guy