Spanish Fritillaries for ID from Pete

[Pete Eeles]

1. Marsh Fritillary

2. Marsh Fritillary

3. Meadow Fritillary

4. Meadow Fritillary

5. Meadow Fritillary

6. Meadow Fritillary

7. Spotted Fritillary

Cheers,

- Pete

[Roger Gibbons]

First impressions:

1 / 2. Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia)
3. False Heath Fritillary (Melitaea diamina) form vernetensis
4. Meadow Fritillary (Mellicta parthenoides) - male
5. Meadow Fritillary (Mellicta parthenoides)
6. Meadow Fritillary (Mellicta parthenoides) - female
7. Spotted Fritillary (Melitaea didyma)

Roger

[Padfield]

6 looks very unlike female parthenoides to me and is within the specs of athalia. It is weakly marked, with open space on the hindwing, but the forewing pattern (particularly the submarginal area) is far more athalia.

Guy

[Robin]

Please forgive my ignorance. I had this identified as a Spanish Fritillary desfontainii based on the chevron in s3:

It looks quite convincing to me. If I'm wrong then i'll rename it. If I'm correct then why aren't Pete's aurinia actually desfontainii?

Puzzled Robin

[Pete Eeles]

Dear Puzzled Robin,

I had a double take too. But look at the outer edge of the forewings; your critter has a row of cream spots running down the edge that are missing in my shots. I have shots of Spanish Fritillary too, but noticed that those I posted here had a different "feel" and that's what it came down to!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Roger Gibbons]

You could well be right, Guy. I was going on these factors which I felt indicated parthenoides to me, in order of significance:
1. the uph discal gap
2. the neatness of the neatly arched and delicately edged uph bands
3. the heavy black borders
4. the generally uncluttered upf (not really heavy enough for athalia?)
5. the wide upf post-discal band
6. the generally orange feel

The heavy marginal border around the s2 lunule may well indicate athalia on the upf as it does on the unf. It certainly does not look like any female athalia I encounter, but the location may be right for variants such as celadussa and biedermanni.

Regarding the Marsh/Spanish Fritillary, Robin, the upf marginal lunules in yours certainly look more sagittate than Pete’s which seem more arched than sagittate to me, sagittate being the indicator of Spanish here. And your red uph post-discal band is wider than Pete’s, also an indication of Spanish. But I am not sure even yours is close enough to the distinctive pattern shown in Tolman & Lewington, even allowing for wear.

Spanish Fritillary is pretty rare as I understand it, and Marsh Fritillary is very common across southern Europe. Marsh Fritillary is often very bright and very orange especially at low altitude. Here is one from southern France:
http://www.butterfliesoffrance.com/html ... ar_28Apr09_
Given this degree of improbability, you really need an ID from someone who is familiar with Spanish Fritillary and preferably with the populations in the region you visited. I would suggest you have a look at my normal reference site for rare species, Matt Rowlings’ site:
http://www.eurobutterflies.com/species_ ... tainii.htm
note that most of Matt’s specimens have a series of beige dots in the upf post-discal band.

Were you in a known region for Spanish Fritillary?