Dark Green Fritillary

Name: Dark Green Fritillary

Scientific name: Argynnis aglaja

Category: Minibeasts

Nature Stars: 60

What are nature stars?

About: A large butterfly, pale orange with an intricate pattern of black spots and lines on the upper wings. The underside of the rear wing is washed with green and marked with white spots. The wingspan is about 6.5 cm. Adults are on the wing through the summer from late May to early September. They live on limestone grassland, on sand dunes and moorland, where the caterpillars feed on violets.

How to identify: Fritillaries are one of the trickier groups of butterflies to identify. The rare High Brown Fritillary, found on a small number of sites around Morecambe Bay, on Dartmoor and around the Welsh borders, is very similar, with orange rings around the white spots on the underwing the main difference.

Where: A scarce butterfly, widespread but localised, scattered across the country.

Natural Superpowers

• Predator: 10
• Agility: 70
• Rarity: 60
• Cute factor: 50
• Traveller: 60

Fantastic fact: Adults particularly like feeding on purple flowers, particularly common knapweed.

Photograph credit: Keith Warmington/www.warmies.co.uk