Butterfly Islands: Spotted Fritillary

Showing posts with label Spotted Fritillary. Show all posts

Thursday 30 May 2019

A Spot of Luck.

The Greek Island of Meganisi is reached via the tourist port of Nydri on Lefkada.So a short ferry ride back to Nydri to spend a short time in and around the town is easy and provides an opportunity to see the local butterflies.

A common species here in Greece and in Europe is the Spotted Fritillary.This female was seen enjoying the clover which proved very lucky for me.

Saturday 16 January 2016

First Trip to Greece.

My first ever visit to Greece was thirty years ago this year in 1986.My stay was spent on the Sithonia peninsula of the Halkidiki region on mainland Greece.The terrain here is rugged and at that time relatively pristine.Two enormous hotels and a golf course dominated this shoreline but just a short walk gave way to a completely rural landscape.I well remember that Nightingales seemed to be everywhere and as it was May they were very vocal.In the meadows the butterflies were numerous with Queen of Spain and Spotted Fritillaries as well as several species of 'Whites'.Among them were the Eastern Bath White,Eastern Dappled White,and my personal favourite, the Black-veined White.
Superficially the Dappled and the Bath White look the same but there are features which can separate the two.The green mottling on the underside of the Dappled can be said to resemble shadows formed by dappled sunlight through tree leaves and usually has a yellowish appearance to it.There are neat white "keyholes" around the outer-margin of the hindwing, and also of the outer-margin of the forewing but especially towards the wing tip. The underwing green of the Eastern Bath White is not so dappled and more of an olive green and less often yellowish.
This can be seen in the following photo of a mating pair of Dappled Whites from '86 and two examples of the Bath White,one from the same date and another seen on Lefkada in 2013.

Tuesday 18 August 2015

Lesser,But No Less Delightful.

The spectacular beach of Chrissi Ammoudia, or Golden Beach as it is known to tourists on the North Aegean Island of Thassos,Greece is a three kilometre stretch of sand backed by a fertile plain and high hills and mountains.My first visit to this now popular holiday destination was in 1991 when the beach was devoid of loungers and umbrellas and many streams flowed across the reedy and olive grove farmland to the sea.A tourist explosion hit this extensive bay, leading to the development of the new holiday village of Scala Panagia at the northern end of the beach and the building of tourist apartments all along the bay inland of the beach.This was clear on my second visit in 2012,so I was ready for more of the same on this years trip.Thankfully building has not taken place near to the waters edge and therefore the dunes still separate the beach from the holiday apartments.

In these dunes can still be found butterflies and other insects and a good find this time was the small but lovely Lesser Spotted Fritillary.It is not as common as its larger relative,the Spotted Fritillary,but is no less colourful.The sexes are similar in size and colouration as they fly around low to the sand from seed head to seed head.

Tuesday 2 June 2015

More from Lefkada.

The common butterflies of Lefkada are always a treat to see although numbers of particular species seem to vary from year to year.Several seasons ago Black-veined Whites were very numerous, but during my last two visits to the Island I have seen just the odd one or two.

This year the Clouded Yellow is enjoying high numbers with quite a few helice form females on show together with many conventional coloured individuals.So too the Cleopatra,a very spectacular butterfly and always a common sight.It is seen in the villages and towns feeding from most garden blooms,and also in hill and mountain meadows and olive groves nectaring on the wild flowers.

Spotted Fritillary male.

Spotted Fritillary female.

Clouded Yellow helice female

Black-veined White.

Cleopatra.

Ilex Hairstreak.

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Roll on the Summer.

Spring is not too far away now and it will be hotly followed (hopefully) by early summer.Like me, a butterfly that enjoys the sun and warmth is the rather unimaginatively named Spotted Fritillary,Melitaea didyma.It can be common in Southern Europe and I have come across this handsome butterfly on the Greek Island of Lefkada where I have seen it in dry hillside meadows.The male has a bright orange- red upperside with black spots,hence its name, whereas the female is marked much more extensively with black.The undersides of both sexes are similar

Monday 10 October 2011

Spotted Fritillary in Greece

The Spotted Fritillary can be a common butterfly in Continental Europe.During June on the Island of Lefkada,Greece I came across a small colony feeding on mostly scabious flowers in a small hillside meadow.The male is brighter and has less black colouring than the female.

The Adonis Blue

The Large Tortoiseshell

It seems the general view on the status of the Large Tortoiseshell in Britain is that it is now extinct as a breeding butterfly.
It is a butterfly of woodland edges and hedgerows that abound in willows,elms,and poplars.These trees are used by the adult to lay its eggs and this single brood appears in July and August.The emerging butterfly then hibernates over the winter in log piles and hollow trees until the next spring.
On the Isle of Wight sightings are more often than not made from early March to April.Have these butterflies overwintered on the Island or have they come from the continent where it is common?
Any sightings made in July/August pose the same question.Another explanation could be that captive-bred releases are responsible.Only the discovery of eggs and caterpillars will probably answer these questions.

I can now report that evidence has been found of breeding just along the coast at Portland in Dorset (June 2020) and again at the same location in the summer of 2021.

The Glanville Fritillary

This elegant butterfly is mainly confined to the crumbling undercliffs and chalk downs of the Isle of Wight.It is also found on the Channel Islands and at one or two isolated colonies on the British mainland.In Britain the Glanville Fritillary is at the extreme north-western edge of its range.On the continent it is readily found in flowery habitats.
Around the southern shores of the Isle of Wight the cliffs constantly erode causing them to slip away and provide perfect conditions for new growths of the butterflies laval host plant,Ribwort Plantain.
The eggs are laid to the underside of the leaves of this plant and normally hatch after about three weeks.The resulting caterpillars live together in communal webs spun over the plantain.In the autumn they hibernate and recommence feeding in the spring,eventually dispersing to prepare for pupation.
The adult butterfly is on the wing from May to the end of June with the female being larger than the male.They will feed on,amongst other things, Birds-foot Trefoil and Thrift.

The Wall Brown

On the Isle of Wight in particular,the Wall Brown is a butterfly of field edges,coastal cliffs and dunes,and rabbit-grazed downland.
The male is territorial and spends much of the time patrolling and basking on the ground.
The female,which lacks the males conspicuous dark sex brand across the forewings,is larger.The undersides of both sexes are beautifully cryptic when at rest.
The Wall Brown generally produces two broods a year,the first from late April until late June and the second from mid-July to mid-September.