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.