Scarce fritillary
The scarce fritillary is a butterfly with dark brown wings covered in orange bands and white spots, like a patchwork quilt. Underneath it is orange with white spots. It likes damp, light woods where ash trees grow.
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Fun facts
The mother lays a little pile of bright red eggs under an ash leaf, only about 1 centimetre wide.
Its caterpillar is dark with bright yellow spots and grows to about 3 centimetres.
The butterflies like to sit on forest paths and drink from puddles.
It is shy and hides a lot, so people mostly see the males.
It has disappeared from many places in Central Europe.
Most asked questions about Scarce fritillary
?What does the scarce fritillary eat?
Its young caterpillars eat ash leaves. Older ones also eat honeysuckle, willow and aspen.
?Is the scarce fritillary rare?
Yes. In many parts of Central Europe it has become very rare or has disappeared.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Euphydryas maturna
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Scarce fritillary (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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