Unknown species

[David M]

Can anyone help with this? I saw this fellow fluttering about at Aberbargoed grasslands today. It had a damaged right forewing and after photographing it I was able to catch it in my hands for a closer look. It was very skipper-like with clubbed antennae but despite this it has to be a moth since it doesn't tally with any British butterfly I know about.

[Elaine]

Sorry, I can't see the photo. Is it just me?

[Mikhail]

I think it may be a strongly aberrant Marsh Fritillary.

Misha

[David M]

I think it may be a strongly aberrant Marsh Fritillary.

Misha

Thanks, Mikhail. I've taken a closer look and the hindwing bands are identical to those found on the Marsh Fritillary. I feel given the habitat in which it was seen that this was, indeed, an aberrant MF.

[Padfield]

I'm sure that's what it is.

Heavy melanism occurs relatively frequently in fritillaries. This is a meadow fritillary from last year (May):



And this a false heath fritillary:



It would not surprise me if these forms were linked with temperatures during the larval or pupal stage.

Guy

[David M]

Thanks, padfield. My mind is now at rest. It was a Marsh fritillary with a large dose of melanism (I've been doing some research tonight being the sad b****r that I am and it seems MFs are quite prone to aberration).

[Lee Hurrell]

I can't see the picture either but would love to!

Cheers

Lee

[Piers]

If I could see the image I could probably put a name to the aberration. Any chance of re-loading the images..?

Felix.

[David M]

I can see them so I'd assumed they were okay. Anyone any tips for providing images visible to all?

[Dave McCormick]

You can upload them directly on here rather than linking them to other sites with the images on them, just when you go to post, go down to "browse" where it says filename then after you find the image, you can or not, write a comment then press "add the file" and when your done, you can write the message, insert the image where you want it (there will be a box that says "Place Inline" after you upload an image) then submit the message when done, should work.

I couldn't see the images either, but I copied the link to my browser and it worked that way... Marsh Fritillary... ab suffusa? Looks similar, if not check here: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/research-cur ... utterflies could be one of these

[David M]

You can upload them directly on here rather than linking them to other sites with the images on them, just when you go to post, go down to "browse" where it says filename then after you find the image, you can or not, write a comment then press "add the file" and when your done, you can write the message, insert the image where you want it (there will be a box that says "Place Inline" after you upload an image) then submit the message when done, should work.

I couldn't see the images either, but I copied the link to my browser and it worked that way... Marsh Fritillary... ab suffusa? Looks similar, if not check here: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/research-cur ... utterflies could be one of these

Thanks, Dave. i've followed your instructions and I hope that people can see the images now. (PS - thanks for the link. Looks more like an ab. atricolor to me).

[Piers]

I can see it now too..!

I would suggest ab. atricolor on the grounds that so much of the wings are dusted with black scales, with just a few rufous spots near the costa of the forewing, and on the hindwings just a reddish submarginal band.

In ab. suffusa the fore and hind wings are usually divided by a thin yellowish median transverse line (does that make sense?) which separates the two predominant colours of black and red. The basal half of the wings are suffused with black scales and the outer half with reddish brown, with the markings more or less normal.

I would hesitate to suggest that this butterfly may well have resulted from a pupa exposed to some of the very late ground frosts experienced across some English and Welsh counties this spring (here in Wilts we still had crunchy grass in the first week of May!)

Felix.

[David M]

I can see it now too..!

I would suggest ab. atricolor on the grounds that so much of the wings are dusted with black scales, with just a few rufous spots near the costa of the forewing, and on the hindwings just a reddish submarginal band.

In ab. suffusa the fore and hind wings are usually divided by a thin yellowish median transverse line (does that make sense?) which separates the two predominant colours of black and red. The basal half of the wings are suffused with black scales and the outer half with reddish brown, with the markings more or less normal.

I would hesitate to suggest that this butterfly may well have resulted from a pupa exposed to some of the very late ground frosts experienced across some English and Welsh counties this spring (here in Wilts we still had crunchy grass in the first week of May!)

Felix.

You could be right, Felix. This year has been highly abnormal in terms of seasonal weather patterns. I'm a bit ashamed that I didn't automatically identify it as an aberrant MF, but given that I had never seen this species before, I reverted to instinct and assumed it had to be some kind of moth with butterfly-like antennae.

I'm satisfied that I know what it was now (thanks to the educated responses by kind folk on this website).