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What's in a Name? (60)
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![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2707 W: 139 N: 7809]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif) (24333) | ‘What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
W. Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet.
We sometimes wonder: what is the point of putting a name to something when there are other aspects to consider, like beauty and that it is still there whatever we call it?
But many of us have a deep desire to put a name to things, especially those species that are similar, in order to tell them apart. In nature these countless names have been classified, the basic system being put down by Linnaeus in 1758.
It isn’t enough to say ‘a ginger-brown butterfly’. However, knowing the name also opens up a whole range of aspects, the behaviour, the time of year it emerges, the larval host plants, the distribution, etc.
There are several species of fritillary that are hard to tell apart. The best way is to look at the patterns of the underside of the hindwings, but sometimes that opportunity does not present itself, as here.
So how do I know that this is the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary (Boloria selene)? It looks very similar to the Pearl-bordered (B. euphrosyne, Linnaeus 1758) when seen with the wings open. Two Austrians, Denis and Schiffermüller had the answer in 1775. They noticed that the row of markings inside to the outer edge markings were v- or crescent-shaped in the Small, and triangular in the Pearl-bordered – see WORKSHOP showing detail of the wing in this species. As they considered these markings were crescent-shaped they opted for the name 'selene', the Greek for moon.
In this way we don’t have to look at the underside of the hindwing to tell them apart and we can use a camera to record it!
This fresh specimen was taken after it hadn’t rained for over a month and there were few flowers for it to feed on. The drought situation is even worse now and we have seen very few butterflies these last weeks.
The Small Bordered, like its slightly earlier relative, the Pearl-bordered occurs in flowery meadows in most of Europe. The larval host plants are species of Viola.
The camera was hand-held at a distance of about 1.8 meters. After slight cropping and size reduction the image was slightly sharpened. |
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