Melitaea trivia, the lesser spotted fritillary, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, part of the sub-family Nymphalinae.
Distribution It is found in the southern part of the Palearctic realm. In Europe it is sometimes called the desert fritillary, but this name also refers to the North African relative M. deserticola.
It was first described in 1775 by entomologists Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller under the basionym Papilio trivia.
Description The wingspan is 15–23 mm. At first sight it is somewhat similar to Melitaea didyma but the black lunules before the margin united and the disc traversed by a strongly flexuose macular band, the hindwing with abundant, connected, black markings on the disc. The female with the ground-colour centrally more or less pale, especially on the forewing.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)
The larva of trivia is leaden grey, with bluish dots and dark dorsal stripe, the sides being striated with brownish, the soft spines whitish, the prolegs dotted with black. The pupa is very stout, anteriorly somewhat swollen, pearl-grey or dull whitish yellow, with small black dots, of which those on the wing-cases do not correspond to the spots of the wings. Some of the black spots, especially those on the abdomen, are ornamented with red or yellow.
Biology The flight period of butterflies in the northern parts of the range lasts from mid-June to early July and in August (two generations develop per year), in the steppe zone - from mid-May to the end of June and from mid-July to the end of August.The butterfly is found in meadows and on roads, particularly also on sunny slopes, and is not rare in most places where it occurs, but does not often fly in such numbers as didyma. Eggs are 0.5 mm in diameter and 0.6 mm in height. Development takes 5-6 days. Caterpillars develop in July-August and from autumn to April on various mulleins (Verbascum ). In the Caucasus, the food plant is figwort ( Scrophularia ). Caterpillars go through 5 instars. The caterpillar stage lasts 13-15 days. The pupal stage lasts 5-7 days. The length of the pupa is 9-13 mm.
Subspecies Melitaea trivia catapelia Staudinger, 1886 Melitaea trivia caucasi Verity, 1922 Verity, 1922 Seasonal polymorphism and races of some European Grypocera and Rhopalocera Ent. Rec. J. Var. 34 : 12-15, 68-73, 89-93, 124-142 (Caucasus and Transcaucasia) Melitaea trivia chorosana Shchetkin, 1984 Shchetkin, Y. L. 1984 The distribution and subspecies of Melitaea catapelia in Middle Asia. (in Russian) Zool. Zh. 64: 1822-1828 (South Ghissar) (Tacikistan). Melitaea trivia fascelis (Esper, 1783) Esper, E.G.C., 1783 Die Schmetterlinge in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen. Theil I. Die Tagschmetterlinge. Fortsetzung. Band 2 – in the south of Europe. Melitaea trivia ignasiti Sagarra, 1926 – in the Iberian Peninsula. This taxon tends to be considered as the distinct species : Melitaea ignasiti. Melitaea trivia nana Staudinger, 1871 Staudinger, O. in Staudinger,O. & Wocke, M.F. 1871 Catalog der Lepidopteren des europaeischen Faunegebiets (Edn. 2): : 1-421, : 422-426 (Corrigenda et Addenda)(Kopet-Dagh Mountains) Melitaea trivia nativa Tuzov, 2000 Tuzov, V.K in Tuzov, V.K , Churkin, S.V and Kolesnichenko, K.A., 2000 Guide to the Butterflies of Russia and Adjacent Territories Volume 2 Libytheidae, Danaidae, Nymphalidae, Riodinidae, Lycaenidae. Pensoft. (Western Pamirs) Melitaea trivia petri Shchetkin, 1984 (Darvaz) Melitaea trivia singularia Korshunov, 1995 (Tuva and Siberia) Melitaea trivia uvarovi Gorbunov, 1995 (Kazakhstan, Siberia, and Alatau mountains) Taxonomy The nominate subspecies inhabits the territory of Eastern Europe; however, due to the high individual and geographic variability and seasonal dimorphism, a certain number of infrasubspecific taxa and subspecies have been described, which have been interpreted differently by different researchers.
Common names In German: Braunlicher Scheckenfalter In French: Mélitée du bouillon-blanc In English: Lesser Spotted Fritillary or Desert Fritillary
References
External links
Butterflies of Europe