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Whilst chasing Dark Green Fritillaries this afternoon in a fern filled Dartmoor Valley, I noticed one that seemed darker and not so golden in flight down the path ahead of me.It alighted for a few seconds on a fern in the distance from my position.I zoomed in as much as I could and got one shot just before it took flight again and it flew off out of sight. On reveiwing the photo tonight at home I note it seems to have a row of white dots in a black band on the edge of the forewing it was showing just before take off. I have not seen these White dots on a DGF before and wondered if it is common on some or if it might be an Ab.Any comments welcome to give a positive ID. Please note i have heavily cropped the photo as it was well in the distance from me.

Hi Dave - that looks like a female to me. They can often be much darker than the males, sometimes even with greenish hints in the mix. Here's an example I saw last year on the Chilterns that looks similar to yours. Cheers,

Dave

Yes, looks like a standard issue female to me too. I've seen it written that it's this feature which gives them the first part of their name: 'Dark' being a reference to the females overall look (noticeably darker than the other large Fritillaries) and 'Green' to the underside rather than it being a complete reference to the shade of green, which lets face it, isn't particularly dark and also explains why it's not hyphenated. Go up to Scotland and they're even darker.

Thank you to both Millerd and Bugboy for your positive confirmation of a normal DGF female, and most interesting comments and comparisons.
Devon Dave.