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?