Knapweed Fritillary Melitaea phoebe, Otočac, Croatia – Peter Bruce-Jones
Introduction
The genus Melitaea comprises of about 70 small-medium sized butterflies – species which are only very distantly related the the larger Fritillaries such as Argynnis and Argyreus, which are members of the subfamily Heliconiinae.
Melitaea are distributed widely across the Palaearctic region from Portugal and Spain to Tibet, China and Japan. There are 8 European species, of which 4 extend their range into north Africa. A single species abyssinica is found in Ethiopia, but the genus is not represented south of the Sahara. The remaining species, i.e. the vast majority, are inhabitants of the temperate grasslands, woodlands and mountain valleys of central Asia.
Melitaea phoebe is found from Spain and north Africa to central Europe, and thence across central Asia to Siberia and China.
Knapweed Fritillary Melitaea phoebe, Otočac, Croatia – Peter Bruce-Jones
Habitats
This is a grassland / meadow species, found at altitudes between 0-1800m.
Lifecycle
The larval foodplants include Centaurea, Plantago and Rhaponticum.
Adult behaviour
Both sexes visit a wide range of flowers for nectar, including hawkbit, thistles and knapweeds. If the weather is dry they roost overnight on the dead flower-heads of knapweeds, but tuck themselves deep into grass tussocks when rain threatens.