Melitaea didyma, the spotted fritillary or red-band fritillary, is a Palearctic butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.
Description Melitaea didyma is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan reaching . The overside of the wings is a bright orange-brown with dark brown markings arranged in rows, which are quite variable in quantity and size. Sometimes the colour of the females is a duller orange, shaded with grey-green. The underside of the wings is chequered pale yellow and pale orange. M. didyma has seasonal forms and sexual dimorphism. The male is fiery red, with a narrow dentate black distal border and a moderate number of small black dots and spots, which are dispersed over the basal half of the wing and end with a short band extending beyond the cell from the costa into the disc. On the underside, which is very abundantly marked with small black dots and hooks, a flexuose subbasal band and a curved submarginal one are situated on a delicately greenish, or yellowish, white ground. In the female the forewing and the anal area of the hindwing are much paler, being moreover dusted with blackish, while the costal half of the hindwing has preserved the red tint : the whole wings are much more abundantly but less prominently marked with black. There occur sometimes specimens with a blue gloss on the upperside.Seitz. A. in Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter, 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren) Biology This butterfly flies from March to October depending on the location. This species has two or three generations and overwinters as young caterpillar.
The larvae feed on various plants, including Linaria, Plantago lanceolata, Veronica, Centaurea jacea and Digitalis purpurea."Melitaea Fabricius, 1807" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
Distribution It is found in southern and central Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, central Asia and Siberia. It is absent from northern Europe (England, Ireland, northern France, Germany, Poland and Scandinavia).
Habitat Melitaea didyma prefers flowery and grassy areas, meadows and roadsides.
Subspecies The species has been divided into many putative subspecies or named forms, some of which are:
Melitaea didyma ambra Higgings, 1941 Melitaea didyma didyma (Esper, 1778) Melitaea didyma elavar Fruhstorfer, 1917 Melitaea didyma kirgisica Bryk, 1940 Melitaea didyma meridionalis Staudinger, 1870 Melitaea didyma neera Fischer de Waldheim, 1840 Melitaea didyma occidentalis Staudinger, 1861 Melitaea didyma orientalis Herrich-Schäffer, 1856 Melitaea didyma turkestanica Sheljuzhko, 1929 etc.
Images of life cycle
References
Guide des papillons d'Europe et d'Afrique du Nord, Delachaux et Niestlé, Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington Russian insects Catalogue of life
External links
AdaMerOs – Butterflies of Turkey Papillons du Poitou-Charente Euro butterflies Butterfly-guide Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa