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Unknown caterpillars and Fritillary
Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 8:02 pm
by traplican
Can anybody help me to determine these caterpillars?
Nickerl's Fritillary?
Nickerl's Fritillary?
This caterpillar was snapped on the Hemp Agrimony near the forest road but I am not sure if it is its foodplant. Probably it is some
arctiid. Other photos of one are here:
photo2
photo3
photo4
And I am not sure if I have correctly determined
this fritillary ( and
another photo of one) as Dark Green Fritillary -
Argynnis aglaja.
Re: Unknown caterpillars and Fritillary
Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 9:09 pm
by Padfield
Hi Traplican,
The fritillary is
selene - the round spot at the base of the hindwing indicates
Clossiana and the rest of the pattern indicates
selene.
As for the fritillary caterpillar, I'm not sure. I'm no expert on caterpillars, but my first impression was
didyma. Looking in my books, I find the white spotting too prominent for
aurelia or its close relatives. It also looks good for
diamina, but the foodplant is wrong -
didyma takes a range of fooplants. Normally, the projections on
didyma look more orange, but the lighting in your picture might disguise this. Maybe someone else will have a better idea.
Guy
Here is a didyma caterpillar I photographed yesterday, on
Linaria vulgaris:
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2010/didymacat101.jpg)
Re: Unknown caterpillars and Fritillary
Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 6:40 am
by traplican
Thank you, Guy.
I just have obtained message from Jiří Beneš: The fritillary caterpillar is
M. athalia and the hirsute caterpillar is
Arctia caja.
I have uncorrectly determinated the Pyrgus on the photos
10606 161 and later; it is not
Pyrgus serratulae but
P. carthami.
JJ
Re: Unknown caterpillars and Fritillary
Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 7:42 am
by Padfield
I can understand why you identified the Pyrgus as
serratulae, but I agree, it is not that. On the other hand, it is very difficult from those views and markings to make an accurate determination. Was it because of the foodplant? I can believe
carthami, but would not have been able to identify it on those views alone.
Here in Switzerland
carthami flies with
serratulae so we get good opportunities to compare them. In fact, they are entirely different butterflies. Above all, they are quite distinct in flight.
Carthami is huge and bouncy - instantly identifiable without even looking at the markings.
Serratulae is much smaller and more 'ordinary'. Photos don't show this obvious difference. Here are
serratulae (behind) and
carthami (in front) photographed this last weekend - they look surprisingly similar, even though there is no possibility of confusion in the field:
Guy
Re: Unknown caterpillars and Fritillary
Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2010 8:47 am
by traplican
padfield wrote:I can understand why you identified the Pyrgus as serratulae, but I agree, it is not that. On the other hand, it is very difficult from those views and markings to make an accurate determination. Was it because of the foodplant?
Yes, it was. Czech name of
Pyrgus serratulae is soumračník
mochnový after
mochna - cinquefoil and when I saw the female putting egs to the cinquefoil the first my thing was that it is this species. I sent the message about this find to the Czech Entomological Institute and it was redeterminded by Jiří Beneš as
Pyrgus carthami. Its foodplant is cinquefoil, too, and it was very large skipper.
Re: Unknown caterpillars and Fritillary
Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2010 6:47 pm
by Padfield
I watched a female
carthami today at her breeding site. She was indeed laying on cinqfoil, pressing eggs under the leaves, and I was able to get shots of an egg:
The plant:
Guy
Re: Unknown caterpillars and Fritillary
Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 7:23 pm
by traplican
Very nice photos, Guy! I hope I shall sometimes shot similar.
![Surprised :o](./images/smilies/icon_surprised.gif)