ID - 3 Fritillaries, Dordogne Jul/Aug 17

[MTem]

And some fritillaries. Now I know these are tricky butters, but any help would be appreciated. We go to this place several times a year and having become aware of the range of species and the variations within them I am looking forward to getting better skilled in their ID. There were literally hundreds of them around the village.

1. Knapweed - these were relatively common, and I have been advised to look for the enlarged submarginal lunulle on space 3 of the front wings together with the "tricoloured” pattern. Assuming this advice is correct then I am comfortable I can ID these
2 & 3 Same individual - Heath?
4 & 5 Same individual - Provencal?
6. Provencal or Meadow?
7. Weaver’s

All for now, and hoping Guy doesn't feel this lets him off the hook! (or put out that I've posted them here as well!)

Mick

[Padfield]

I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest all the ones labelled 'Provençal' are actually meadow. The underside picture shows a clear distinction between the white band (on the hindwing) and a yellower colour separating it from the yellow and orange lunules. In Provençal this separating band is supposed to be white. I haven't seen enough of this species outside Switzerland to know if this is universally true but it certainly holds here and Lafranchis cites it as a criterion.

The uppersides don't leap out as Provençal to me, but as I always say with this species, our Swiss subspecies is so different I'm not confident with French butterflies.

Guy

[MTem]

Thanks Guy, unless someone else contradicts I'll label as Meadow with your comments in the notes.

What about the one labelled 'Provencal or Meadow'? No underwing I'm afraid, but it does show a different rear wing pattern, with one less 'line' across vs. the ones above.

Mick

[MTem]

And just to make sure I understand Guy, is it the 'line' of yellowish cells between the two arrows that you refer to - and that should be white in Provencal?

Mick

[Padfield]

Exactly. White or whitish - approximately the same shade as the white (or whitish) band inside it.

Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

I agree that the Provencal band is quite noticeably white and bright (not that I get to see many undersides), but the Meadow band is also white in my experience, although maybe not quite as bright as Provencal.

Another clue is that the underside of Provencal is noticeably reddish, although you need to have seen enough Heath and Meadow to know what the baseline redness is.

An even better clue is that, according to the Lafranchis distribution maps, Provencal doesn't occur in Dordogne. I have also seen lots of Meadow in that part of the world.

As with many species, the classic ID features only really apply to males, while the females don't necessarily follow the same rules.

Roger