Euphydryas aurinia aurinia

Var, France, April 2004

Var, France, April 2004

Marsh Fritillary
Euphydryas aurinia

Distribution: Most of Europe except Mediterranean islands, E UK, much of Scandinavia, Italy (present in central Italy plus the Alps) and most of Greece.

Identification: Resembles the other Euphydryas species. This species has a an orange submarginal band on the upperside hindwing with black spots. Outside this orange band is a small series of pale yellow lunules (not orange). This is similar only to the Spanish Fritillary, E. desfontainii, which has strong black marks on the underside forewing. Note, in the field desfontainii appears to be brighter and more vivid than most aurinia.

Flight time: April to July depending strongly on altitude and latitude. I've found it in late April in Var, France at around 800m altitude and in July at 2000m in Switzerland.

Habitat: Usually damp places, but sometimes dry hillsides (e.g. in Var, France). Larvae feed on Devil's Bit Scabious, Succisa pratensis and other species of Scabious and possibly other plants in southern Europe.

Behaviour: Flies gently above grassy habitats. Both sexes often rest on grasses for quite long periods.

Additional notes: At high levels there is evidence that this subspecies becomes more like debilis. It is quite possible that the latter is just the high level form of aurinia, despite the clear differences seen when comparing high and low level specimens.

Within this range it has rapidly become sufficiently rare to be protected by European legislation. It is still fairly common in places though, including Ireland where it is one of the 30 or so resident species. Ireland is also one of its European strongholds.