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Melitaea cinxia


Melitaea cinxia
Photo Information
Copyright: Harm Alberts (Harm-digitaal) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 100 W: 1 N: 1510] (5934)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2007-07-30
Categories: Insects
Camera: Canon EOS 300D, Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L USM Macro
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): European Butterflies 6 [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2007-09-28 3:55
Viewed: 350
Points: 2
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Melitaea cinxia / Glanville Fritillary / Wegerich-Scheckenfalter oder Gemeiner-Scheckenfalter / / Veldparelmoervlinder / La Mélitée du Plantain.

The Glanville Fritillary (Melitaea cinxia) is a butterfly of the Nymphalidae family.

The animal spends most of its life as a black, spiny caterpillar. The orange patterned butterfly lives only a few weeks.

The Glanville Fritillary inhabits open grassland throughout Europe (except much of Great Britain, Scandinavia, and southern Spain) and temperate Asia. A subspecies inhabits North Africa. Severe population declines are reported in many European countries.

Life cycle:
The Glanville Fritillary (Melitaea cinxia) is a medium sized orange, black and white "checkerspot" butterfly inhabiting open meadows. The males patrol along roads and habitat edges, on the lookout for the less conspicuous females which remain in dense tussocks for long periods. Mating occurs around mid-day, and as the female often continues to fly from flower to flower, mating pairs are conspicuous.

Throughout most of their range they have one generation per year, overwintering as larvae. In warm regions they have two generations per year. In her lifetime, a female lays several clusters of up to 200 eggs on the underside of the larval food plant. She feeds on nectar (with her proboscis) from surrounding flowering plants. The larvae feed on several species of plants in the genera Plantago and Veronica. They live in gregarious family groups in characteristic silken webs ("nests") throughout most of their larval stage. When alarmed, a feeding group of Glanville Fritillary larvae will jerk their heads in unison, probably to distract their enemies.

Through the winter (or summer where it is very dry), the caterpillars stop feeding and lie dormant until spring (or fall, where the summer is dry) when they resume eating, and eventually pupate. The inconspicuous pupa hangs from a plant stem or lies in the leaf litter for 2 to 3 weeks, until the next generation of adults emerges, living for only up to three weeks.
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glanville_Fritillary

De veldparelmoervlinder (Melitaea cinxia) is een dagvlinder uit de familie Nymphalidae, de vossen, parelmoervlinders en weerschijnvlinders.

De veldparelmoervlinder staat in de Nederlandse Rode lijst dagvlinders vermeld als ernstig bedreigd. De vlinder heeft een voorkeur voor droge schrale graslanden in de buurt van bossen en is wijdverbreid in Centraal- en Oost-Europa.

De vliegtijd is van mei tot en met september.

Bron:http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veldparelmoervlinder

Harm

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