Butterflies of
Europe
Spotted
Fritillary
Melitaea didyma
ESPER, 1778
Family - NYMPHALIDAE
subfamily -
NYMPHALINAE
Tribe - MELITAEINI
subtribe -
EUPHAEDRYINA
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Spotted Fritillary
Melitaea didyma, Aggtelek, Hungary
© Peter Bruce-Jones |
Introduction
The genus
Melitaea comprises of about 70 small-medium sized
butterflies - species which are only very distantly related the the larger
Fritillaries such as Argynnis and
Argyreus, which are members of the subfamily
Heliconiinae.
Melitaea are
distributed widely across the Palaearctic region from
Portugal and Spain to Tibet, China and Japan. There are 8 European
species, of which 4 extend their range into north Africa. A single species
abyssinica is found in Ethiopia, but the genus is
not represented south of the Sahara. The remaining species, i.e. the vast
majority, are inhabitants of the temperate grasslands, woodlands and mountain
valleys of central Asia.
Melitaea didyma
occidentalis is found from Spain and north Africa to central Europe.
Various other subspecies occur in the Urals, Volga, Pamirs, Tien Shan and
Siberia.
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Spotted Fritillary
Melitaea didyma, Tribanj,
Croatia
© Peter Bruce-Jones |
Habitats
This is a
grassland / meadow species, found at altitudes between sea level
and about 2000m.
Lifecycle
The larva is
polyphagous, it's foodplants including
Plantago, Veronica,
Viola,
Scrophularia, Linaria,
Dianthus and
Phlomis.
Adult behaviour
Males commonly
bask on bare ground, usually in sheltered hollows, where they wait
to intercept passing females.
Both sexes visit
a wide range of flowers for nectar, including hawkbit, thistles
and knapweeds. If the weather is dry they roost overnight on the
dead flower-heads of knapweeds, St Johns wort, plantain etc; but
tuck themselves deep into grass tussocks when rain threatens.
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