Pallas's fritillary is a bright yellow-orange butterfly of Eurasia, including Korea and Japan, that does not occur in the United States. Its best field mark is the broken silvery-white band running across the middle of the hindwing underside. Its caterpillars feed on violets.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Wingspan about 1.9–2.6 in (48–65 mm). The upperside is bright orange-yellow with neat rows of round black spots. The underside has no silver spots; instead a row of white marks splits the hindwing into a yellow, greenish-glossed inner part and an outer part that is reddish brown to pinkish violet. Females have tiny white spots near the forewing tip.
Look-alikes
Argynnis ruslana
A. ruslana has a more projecting forewing tip, a browner, greenish-tinged underside, and an unbroken dark line across the middle of the hindwing upperside; in Pallas's fritillary that line is broken at the veins.
Why they get mixed upA close East Asian relative with a similar silvery band on the hindwing underside.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Meadows
- Forest clearings
- Range
- Found across temperate Eurasia, from southern Scandinavia and eastern Europe through Siberia to Korea and Japan. It is not found in North America.
- Preferred conditions
- In Europe it lives in forest clearings, glades, and wet meadows.
Behavior
- Activity
- One generation a year. In Europe adults fly in July and August.
- Overwintering
- Overwinters as a caterpillar.
Life cycle
- Caterpillar food plants
- Caterpillars eat violets, including heath violet and marsh violet in Europe.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Often listed in older books as Argyronome laodice. Japanese populations are treated as the A. l. japonica.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
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