Heath or Provencal Fritillary?

[Nigel Kiteley]

Hi, this fritillary was photographed in Spain back in June and i can't decide between Heath and Provencal, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards Nigel.

[Padfield]

To be honest, I am not certain. There are some very bright forms of heath fritillary in Spain and I have little personal experience of Provençal fritillary outside Switzerland, where our subspecies berisalli is quite different.

Your butterfly doesn't stand out so obviously as Provençal as some do and something about the upperside keeps saying athalia to me. I'd like to hear what someone thinks who knows deione better.

Tristan Lafranchis makes much of the palpi but most people I know agree this is not a useful criterion.

Guy