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Hi everyone. Here are 2 photos of the same individual from July in the Alpes de Haute Provence, but I can't make my mind up on the species - there are so many fritillaries that look so similar. Can someone give me a positive ID please?
Chris.

I think this is a form of false heath fritillary, Melitaea diamina. Forms like this are very common in the Pyrenees and Cataluña and Tolman notes they occur regularly in most populations in the S Alps.

My first criterion, as usual, was simply gut reaction - this looks like diamina. Looking in more detail, the structure of the upf markings is good for diamina, as is the dumbell mark. The hint of a black spot at the outer edge of the orange lunules on the unh cries out diamina and the overall very pale uns are commoner in diamina than athalia, though I think there is a bleaching effect caused by the exposure.

If I'd seen it, that butterfly would appear in my own records as diamina.

The only other possibility is athalia.

Guy

It was rightly 'diamina' and 'athalia' that had me in two minds, and that slight over-exposure doesn't help. Thanks for your analysis Guy - 'diamina' it will be then !!
Chris.

These two species (diamina and athalia) can be very tricky from the PACA region. Athalia is often very dark at higher altitudes, as you might expect. This specimen would be very unusual for diamina from this region, in my experience. Nearly all are much darker on the uph.

The upf s1 dumbbell is usually a good indicator of diamina, but athalia can tend toward this mark. The heavy shading around the upf and unf s2 usually indicates athalia. I would have expected dark spots in the unh post-discal series for diamina whereas these are small and red, but the clue that may be most telling is that the unh marginal band is white and not contrasted with the bands either side; in my experience in PACA (and experience depends on where you’ve been and what you’ve seen), diamina always has a distinctive yellow band, clearly contrasting with those either side.

Here is an athalia for the Alpes de Haute Provence (alt 1600m) earlier this year, that is not so far removed from Chris’s. I am fairly certain diamina vernetensis does not occur in the PACA region.