ID help Dark Green Fritillary Ab ?

[Devon Dave]

Whilst chasing Dark Green Fritillaries this afternoon in a fern filled Dartmoor Valley, I noticed one that seemed darker and not so golden in flight down the path ahead of me.It alighted for a few seconds on a fern in the distance from my position.I zoomed in as much as I could and got one shot just before it took flight again and it flew off out of sight. On reveiwing the photo tonight at home I note it seems to have a row of white dots in a black band on the edge of the forewing it was showing just before take off. I have not seen these White dots on a DGF before and wondered if it is common on some or if it might be an Ab.Any comments welcome to give a positive ID. Please note i have heavily cropped the photo as it was well in the distance from me.

[millerd]

Hi Dave - that looks like a female to me. They can often be much darker than the males, sometimes even with greenish hints in the mix. Here's an example I saw last year on the Chilterns that looks similar to yours.

Cheers,

Dave

[bugboy]

Yes, looks like a standard issue female to me too. I've seen it written that it's this feature which gives them the first part of their name: 'Dark' being a reference to the females overall look (noticeably darker than the other large Fritillaries) and 'Green' to the underside rather than it being a complete reference to the shade of green, which lets face it, isn't particularly dark and also explains why it's not hyphenated. Go up to Scotland and they're even darker.

[Devon Dave]

Thank you to both Millerd and Bugboy for your positive confirmation of a normal DGF female, and most interesting comments and comparisons.
Devon Dave.