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Matt Rowlings

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Melitaea didyma

Spotted Fritillary

Valais, Switzerland, August 2009
The larva was photographed in June.

Var, France, July 2009

Pyrénées Orientales, France, May 2006

Valais, Switzerland, June 2008

S Greece, July 2007

Catalonia, Spain, May 2007

NW Greece, August 2008
Aberrant amount of black.

Var, France, May 2006

Valais, Switzerland, July 2006

With Comma and Marbled White, P. c-album and M. galathea

Valais, Switzerland, July 2004

Valais, Switzerland, July 2004

Valle d'Aosta, Italy, July 2004

Female

Var, France, May 2004

Female

Valais, Switzerland, August 2005

Female

Macedonia, Greece, July 2004

Macedonia, Greece, July 2004

Pelopennesos, Greece, June 2002

Provence, France, June 2003

Female of ssp. meridionalis

Provence, France, August 2001

Macedonia, Greece, July 2000

A heavily gravid female judging by the bulging abdomen.

This species flies through southern and central Europe from north Africa to Poland and Greece. The males are usually of a very rich red that is easily seen from a distance and differentiated from the other Fritillaries. From north Spain to Greece the subspecies meridionalis flies. This has very dusky females. Elsewhere other named forms fly with differences in size, ground colour and degree of variation in orange/ yellow ground colour.