Biology:Melitaea trivia
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| Melitaea trivia | |
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_female_Nazilli.jpg)
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| Female, Turkey | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Melitaea |
| Species: | M. trivia
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| Binomial name | |
| Melitaea trivia Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775[1]
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Melitaea trivia, the lesser spotted fritillary, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, part of the sub-family Nymphalinae.
Distribution
It is found in the southern part of the Palearctic realm. In Europe it is sometimes called the desert fritillary, but this name also refers to the North African relative M. deserticola.
It was first described in 1775 by entomologists Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller under the basionym Papilio trivia.[1]
Description
The wingspan is 15–23 mm. At first sight it is somewhat similar to Melitaea didyma but the black lunules before the margin united and the disc traversed by a strongly flexuose macular band, the hindwing with abundant, connected, black markings on the disc. The female with the ground-colour centrally more or less pale, especially on the forewing.[2]
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Melitaea trivia ♂ -
Melitaea trivia ♂ △ -
Melitaea trivia ♀ -
Melitaea trivia ♀ △
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_Melitaea_trivia_-_Slovaquie_-_male_ventral.jpg)
_Melitaea_trivia_-_Slovaquie_-_female_dorsal.jpg)
_Melitaea_trivia_-_Slovaquie_-_female_ventral.jpg)
The larva of trivia is leaden grey, with bluish dots and dark dorsal stripe, the sides being striated with brownish, the soft spines whitish, the prolegs dotted with black. The pupa is very stout, anteriorly somewhat swollen, pearl-grey or dull whitish yellow, with small black dots, of which those on the wing-cases do not correspond to the spots of the wings. Some of the black spots, especially those on the abdomen, are ornamented with red or yellow.
Biology
The flight period of butterflies in the northern parts of the range lasts from mid-June to early July and in August (two generations develop per year), in the steppe zone - from mid-May to the end of June and from mid-July to the end of August.The butterfly is found in meadows and on roads, particularly also on sunny slopes, and is not rare in most places where it occurs, but does not often fly in such numbers as didyma. Eggs are 0.5 mm in diameter and 0.6 mm in height. Development takes 5-6 days. Caterpillars develop in July-August and from autumn to April on various mulleins (Verbascum ). In the Caucasus, the food plant is figwort ( Scrophularia ). Caterpillars go through 5 instars. The caterpillar stage lasts 13-15 days. The pupal stage lasts 5-7 days. The length of the pupa is 9-13 mm.
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larva -
pupa -
pair in copula
Subspecies
- Melitaea trivia catapelia Staudinger, 1886
- Melitaea trivia caucasi Verity, 1922 [3] (Caucasus and Transcaucasia)
- Melitaea trivia chorosana Shchetkin, 1984 [4] (South Ghissar) (Tacikistan).
- Melitaea trivia fascelis (Esper, 1783) [5] – in the south of Europe.
- Melitaea trivia ignasiti Sagarra, 1926 – in the Iberian Peninsula. This taxon tends to be considered as the distinct species : Melitaea ignasiti.
- Melitaea trivia nana Staudinger, 1871 [6](Kopet-Dagh Mountains)
- Melitaea trivia nativa Tuzov, 2000 [7] (Western Pamirs)
- Melitaea trivia petri Shchetkin, 1984 (Darvaz)
- Melitaea trivia singularia Korshunov, 1995 (Tuva and Siberia)
- Melitaea trivia uvarovi Gorbunov, 1995[1] (Kazakhstan, Siberia, and Alatau mountains)
Taxonomy
The nominate subspecies inhabits the territory of Eastern Europe; however, due to the high individual and geographic variability and seasonal dimorphism, a certain number of infrasubspecific taxa and subspecies have been described, which have been interpreted differently by different researchers.
Common names
- In German: Braunlicher Scheckenfalter
- In French: Mélitée du bouillon-blanc
- In English: Lesser Spotted Fritillary or Desert Fritillary[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Melitaea trivia". http://www.ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/nymphalinae/melitaea/#trivia. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
- ↑ Seitz. A. in Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter, 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren)
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ↑ Verity, 1922 Seasonal polymorphism and races of some European Grypocera and Rhopalocera Ent. Rec. J. Var. 34 : 12-15, 68-73, 89-93, 124-142
- ↑ Shchetkin, Y. L. 1984 The distribution and subspecies of Melitaea catapelia in Middle Asia. (in Russian) Zool. Zh. 64: 1822-1828
- ↑ Esper, E.G.C., 1783 Die Schmetterlinge in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen. Theil I. Die Tagschmetterlinge. Fortsetzung. Band 2
- ↑ Staudinger, O. in Staudinger,O. & Wocke, M.F. 1871 Catalog der Lepidopteren des europaeischen Faunegebiets (Edn. 2): : 1-421, : 422-426 (Corrigenda et Addenda)
- ↑ Tuzov, V.K in Tuzov, V.K , Churkin, S.V and Kolesnichenko, K.A., 2000 Guide to the Butterflies of Russia and Adjacent Territories Volume 2 Libytheidae, Danaidae, Nymphalidae, Riodinidae, Lycaenidae. Pensoft.
External links
- Butterflies of Europe Script error: The function "in_lang" does not exist.
- AdaMerOs-Butterflies of Turkey
Wikidata ☰ Q2055710 entry
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