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Mellicta britomartis

Assmann's Fritillary

Field Notes

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Cluj, Romania, June 2006

 

Cluj, Romania, June 2006

 
v

Cluj, Romania, June 2006

 

Identification of the difficult Mellicta group by genitalia.

Click on link to review the Mellicta.

 

Peter Rowlings

SE Czech Republic, end June 2001

 

SE Czech Republic, end June 2001

 

SE Czech Republic, end June 2001

The same individual.
 

SE Czech Republic, end June 2001

The same individual showing as much of the underside forewing as I have.

 

Here's a tricky customer. When I was in the extreme SE Czech Republic in 2001 I spent many hours convincing myself this was the M. britomartis. That was the easy part, it was harder convincing myself that it wasn't the very similar species M. aurelia. I was pretty sure it wasn't M. athalia. I'm fairly certain that it is britomartis but I'd like comment on this insect - please e-mail me using e-mail link on top left of the page. I'll not explain why I think it is britomartis in case it influences your thinking!

I found about a dozen of these butterflies on a lovely flowery limestone hillside in an area britomartis is reported from. We were at an altitude of about 300m. They were gliding over the meadow slowly at a height of about 0.5m. It was noticeably dark when in flight, which first attracted my attention.

 

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