Marsh fritillary - online puzzles

The marsh fritillary ( Euphydryas aurinia) is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. Commonly distributed in the Palearctic region, the marsh fritillary got its common name due to its habitat: marshy, damp wetlands and grasslands. The prolonged larval stage lasts for approximately seven to eight months and includes a period of hibernation over the winter. The larvae are dependent on the host food plant Succisa pratensis not only for feeding but also for hibernation, because silken webs are formed on the host plant as the gregarious larvae enter hibernation. Because female butterflies lay eggs in batches on the host plant, females are selective about the location of oviposition. The cost of laying the batches of eggs at an unfavorable location is high and extensive.Over the past few decades, the E. aurinia population has faced rapid decline and become endangered as a consequence of landscape and climate changes. Loss of habitat due to decline of host plant population has been the biggest factor. Although efforts of conservation and management have revived the population slightly, the metapopulations of E. aurinia are still vulnerable to extinction.

Taxonomy

E. aurinia is represented by many subspecies. The most widely accepted are:

Euphydryas aurinia aurinia central Europe, southern Europe, western Siberia

Euphydryas aurinia bulgarica (Fruhstorfer, 1916) Carpathian Mountains

Euphydryas aurinia laeta (Christoph, 1893) central Siberia, Altai, Sayan, Transbaikal

Euphydryas aurinia beckeri (Lederer, 1853) Morocco (Middle Atlas, Rif Mountains ) submarginal band of the hindwing is of a magnificent deep russet- red colour and nearly occupies the whole outer half of the wing, being outwardly bordered by black lunules centred with pale yellow

Euphydryas aurinia barraguei (Betz, 1956) Algeria

Euphydryas aurinia provincialis (Boisduval, 1828) ( France and northern Italy )but the total number of described subspecies is much higher, especially in the eastern Palaearctic.