Grisons Fritillary

Mellicta varia

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Male, Switzerland, August 2008

Male, Switzerland, July 2006

Male, Switzerland, July 2006

Male, Switzerland, July 2006

Female, Switzerland, July 2006

Dark female, Switzerland, July 2006

Male, Switzerland, June 2005

This mountain fritillary is not uncommon in the Valais region of Switzerland, where it replaces the meadow fritillary, but I had never seen any individuals until June 2005. It is like a meadow fritillary in many ways, but the ones we saw on this occasion were smaller, much neater, and all lacked the oblique brand in space 1 of the forewing upperside, this being replaced with a characteristic mark seen well in the above (rather bad) picture.