Dark Green Fritillary
Big Fritillary ( Argynnis aglaja )
The Great Fritillary ( Argynnis aglaja ) is a butterfly ( butterfly ) of the family Nymphalidae ( Nymphalidae ).
- 6.1 Notes and references
- 6.2 Literature
Features
The moths reach a wingspan of 50 to 55 millimeters and with its size, which is slightly smaller than that of the Emperor jacket ( Argynnis paphia ) is one of the largest European fritillary. They have orange or yellow-brown wing tops, patterned with black spots and transverse bands. The wing edge is lined wide dark. Behind the triangular patches that extend into the black border rows. The wing undersides of the hind wings are yellow-brown, the inner two -thirds, or in the Basalhälfte, they are slightly greenish and have numerous, bright pearl spots. At the outer edge of wing bright spots are also ranked. The undersides of the forewings are more colored orange and have black spots on. The males have three slightly broadened longitudinal veins in the back of the forewing scent scales with which they can emit pheromones to make females ready to mate.
The caterpillars are about 38 mm long. They are black and wear on the sides of each -orange dot rows. Young caterpillars are additionally marked white. The caterpillars have long, black and branched thorns.
System
The specific epithet comes from the ancient Greek word aglaja ἀγλαΐα, the splendor, magnificence means. Carl Linnaeus in 1758 awarded the name Papilio aglaja twice, first to a white butterfly from South East Asia, now known Delias aglaja, then to the Great Perlmuttfalter. Linnaeus realized his error and replaced the 1767 white butterfly Papilio pasithoe name by which, according to the rules of nomenclature only led to a synonym. The Great fritillary is also known under the synonym Mesoacidalia aglaja, L..
Occurrence
The animals come in all of Europe, Morocco, and almost all of Asia before to Japan. Its distribution extends to about 2,200 m above sea level. They live in forests but also in an open area such as meadows, fens and grasslands. They prefer alkaline soils and are not rare, but at times in sharp retreat.
Flight times and caterpillars
They fly in one generation from June to August.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed on most of Rauen Violet (Viola hirta ), but also by Dog- violet (Viola canina ) and marsh violet ( Viola palustris).
Development
The females lay their eggs singly on stems and leaf undersides and tops of their food plants. The hatching after two to three weeks caterpillars eat only the egg shells to right after going into hibernation. Their development does not begin until next year. They pupate in brown Stürzpuppen not wearing silver stain on the stem near the ground.