The Glanville fritillary (Melitaea cinxia) is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is named for Eleanor Glanville, the naturalist who discovered it, and the checkerboard pattern on its wings. These butterflies live in almost all of Europe, especially Finland, and in parts of northwest Africa. They are absent from the far north of Europe and parts of the Iberian Peninsula. To the east they are found across the Palearctic (in Turkey, Russia, northern Kazakhstan, and Mongolia).

It has been discovered that this butterfly only mates one time in June or July and lays its eggs. It does not provide any protection to these eggs or care for the offspring. As adults, the Glanville fritillaries are short-lived; they spend most of their lives as caterpillars. As caterpillars, Glanville fritillaries enter a stage of diapause, which is a period of suspended development, during the winter time. who was an eccentric 17th- and 18th-century English butterfly enthusiast – a very unusual occupation for a woman at that time. She was the first to capture British specimens in Lincolnshire during the 1690s. A contemporary wrote

Geographic range and habitat

The Glanville fritillary is found across Europe and temperate Asia. It is most commonly found on Åland (Finland), which host a network of about 4,000 dry meadows, the fritillary's ideal habitat. These butterflies commonly inhabit open grassland at an elevation of above sea level.

Glanville fritillaries in the UK

In the UK the Glanville fritillary occurs only on soft undercliff and chine grassland and where its main larval food plant Plantago lanceolata (English plantain) occurs in abundance on sheltered, south facing slopes. The Glanville fritillary is a highly restricted species within the UK, being confined to the Isle of Wight and even there being largely limited to the southern coast. It also occurs in the Channel Islands, and since 1990 there has been a mainland site on the Hampshire coast, possibly the result of an introduction. There are small introduced populations on the Somerset coast and two in Surrey: one near Wrecclesham, and one at a nature reserve in Addington, near Croydon.

Historic UK records suggest a distribution which went as far north as Lincolnshire. However, by the middle of the 19th century the Glanville fritillary was known only from the Isle of Wight and the coast of Kent between Folkestone and Sandwich. It became extinct in Kent by the mid-1860s.

Description

Melitaea cinxia has a wingspan of about . These medium-sized butterflies have orange, black, and white "checkerspot" forewings. On the upper side of the hindwings they have a row of black dots. The hindwings have white and orange bands and a series of black dots inside them, also clearly visible on the reverse. Females are usually more dull than males with more developed black dots.

Caterpillars are about 25 mm long with a reddish-brown head and a spiny black body with small white dots.

Spiked speedwell Defense

thumb|upright|left|Spiked speedwell

As an attempt to fend off predators and parasitoids, the spiked speedwell emits volatile organic compounds (VOCs) when threatened. Some researchers found that this plant species has two different defenses for when it is being fed on and when a butterfly is in oviposition. The oviposition of the butterfly on this plant was able to induce the increase of two ketones (6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and t-geranylacetone) and the suppression of green leaf volatiles (GLVs).

Adults

Adult Glanville fritillaries have a diet that consists solely of nectar. It has been shown that larvae with higher amounts of iridoid glycosides have better defense against parasitoids and bacterial pathogens.

Mating

thumb|upright|Mating

Adult Glanville fritillaries take flight, mate, and lay their eggs from June to early July. During this time it has been found that females only mate once. Females also tend to mate in their natal groups before dispersing with a mate to lay their eggs in a different population. This dispersal helps induce genetic flow between populations on the fragmented meadows of the Åland Islands.

Life history

Life cycle (egg, caterpillar, pupa, adult)

A female Glanville fritillary will lay as many as 10 clutches of eggs in her lifetime. These clutches can range in size from 50 up to 300 eggs and are laid on the underside of the larval food plant of either Plantago lanceolata (ribwort plantain) or Veronica spicata (spiked speedwell). After hatching, the caterpillars feed on their host plants until the end of the summer where they spin a "winter nest" to diapause. When winter is over they emerge from their nest to feed again before pupating around the beginning of May. A month later, the adult fritillaries emerge and go about their adult lives of feeding, mating, and laying eggs.

Clutch size is inversely related to the size of the clutches previously laid, meaning that the more eggs a female lays in years prior, the fewer eggs will be in the present clutch. Further, it is known that clutch sizes decrease with the age of the female. This is thought to be due to resource depletion over time in the female, potentially from high investment in earlier clutches.

  • Cotesia melitaearum
  • Hyposoter horticola

And several generalist species:

  • Pterolmalus apum
  • Ichneumon gracilicornis
  • Pteromalus apum
  • Pteromalus puparum
  • Coelopisthia caledonica

And has several hyperparasitoids Glanville fritillaries will migrate around the Åland Islands to different habitat patches, but they will not embark on great transcontinental seasonal migrations like other butterflies do. Because of this they are very susceptible to climate change, which is something to keep in mind when considering plans to aid in the conservation of this species.

Status

This butterfly is not currently listed as threatened in Europe, but its UK BAP status is Priority Species. The NERC act of England lists it as species of principal importance. Its Butterfly Conservation priority is high, so this is a butterfly likely to be increasingly threatened in the coming years.

Etymology

Cinxia (from Latin) - belted (cinctus - belt). The name reflects the appearance of the butterfly.

References

General references

  • Lepiforum
  • Paolo Mazzei, Daniel Morel, Raniero Panfili Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa