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Glanville Fritillary
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Melitaea cinxia (Linnaeus, 1758)
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.
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. |
parasbhalla, josediogo1958, anel, cloud has marked this note useful
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vwey nice welfocussed shot of this fritilary,
great colors
TFS
J
- PeterZ
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5137 W: 166 N: 13121]](https://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(49139) - [2012-06-07 13:51]
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Hello Marx,
Bautiful photo in very nice natural colours and fantastic sharp details. Great POV, blurred background and composition.
Regards,
Peter
Dear Marx,
A razor-sharp capture of a lovely butterfly against a well blurred BG is nicely seen!
The POV is excellent, and colors are natural.
Good management of exposure and balanced light which bring superb details of this Glanville Fritillary.
Nice work!
Best regards,
Paras
perfect capture, TFS Ori
Hello Marx
Wonderful macro with great POV and composition,beautiful colours and lighting,and excellent sharp details.Congrats!
Thank You
Best regards
J.Diogo
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- cloud
(9539)
- [2012-06-08 9:17]
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Witaj,
Ladny czysciutki kadr, swietne miekkie swiatlo, doskonale wyostrzony motyl.
Pozdrawiam, Pawel
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 294 W: 6 N: 877]](https://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-n-g.gif)
(7664)![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3032 W: 11 N: 2351]](https://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-s-g.gif)
(43778)