Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia)

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2024 photographs highlighted in yellow. Click on any photograph to go to an enlarged picture, or simply scroll down the page.

18256_male_Isère_12Jul09 2355_male_Var_5Jul06 52925_male_Isère_10Jul24 16342_female_Var_20Jun09
49354_female_Var_8Jun22 49735_female_Hautes-Alpes_9Jul22 - form valezina 16322_female_Var_20Jun09 - form valezina 16498_female_Var_23Jun09 - form valezina
2661_female_Var_11Jul06 - form valezina 43040_male_Côte-d'Or_01Jun17 18246_male_Isère_12Jul09 18401_male_Isère_13Jul09
 
49357_female_Var_8Jun22 40761_female_Var_21Jun16 11591_female_Var_27Jun08 - form valezina  

A common species almost everywhere. Five of the photographs show the form valezina, a variant of the female where both surfaces have a bronze-green suffusion, giving it a superficial similarity to the Cardinal (A. pandora). I have only seen one valezina in England, where it is comparatively infrequent, but in Var, valezina consistently makes up around 30% of the female paphia population, and this has been consistent every year.

Valezina is sometimes spelt valesina.

The male paphia has very pronounced sex brands, giving it a more "streaky" appearance, whereas the female seems more "spotted".

ref sex

observations

alt. m
18256 M

a male, fresh and quite heavily marked.

1120
2355 M

a typical male with very heavy sex brands on veins 1-3 and a smaller one on s4.

450
52925 M a male, with fully open wings and quite still in a spell of overcast weather. 920
16342 F

a female of the nominate form, quite heavily marked.

220
49354 F a pristine female, which appeared to have just emerged, given that it rested with open wings for a while. There is a slight bluish tinge at the forewing margin which may be a function of the camera angle or possibly a feature of its fresh emergence. 49357 is the underside. 200
49735 F a female of the form valezina, quite dull and dusky even though it appeared fresh from the intact state of the fringes. 1380
16322 F

a female of the form valezina, very heavily marked and appearing almost black in flight.

220
16498 F

a female of the form valezina taking moisture from a damp mud puddle.

450
2661 F

a female upperside of the form valezina.

450
43040 M a male taking salts from the top of a wall made of some type of brick. The surface appeared completely dry, so how this male was actually extracting anything is rather a mystery. 430
18246 M

a male, nice developed silvery-white unh streaks.

1120
18401 M

a male, very limited silvery-white streaks on the unh - contrast with 18246 from the same location and time.

1120
49357 F a female, the underside of 49354, with strong and complete silver streaks in the discal and marginal regions. 200
40761 F a female with a particularly green underside. 840
11591 F

T&L says there is a form argyrea which has no silver streaks on the unh and occurs in northern Italy and Spain, and 11591 matches the illustration of this in T&L quite closely. H&R refers to this form as anargyria. I am inclined to assume that it is an underside of the form valezina, but T&L does not give an illustration of this so I cannot be 100% certain, although I cannot see what else it could be, on the assumption that H&R is correct regarding the distribution of anargyria. If it is valezina, it has to be a female.

220

 

18256_male_Isère_12Jul09

 

2355_male_Var_5Jul06

 

52925_male_Isère_10Jul24

 

16342_female_Var_20Jun09

 

49354_female_Var_8Jun22

 

49735_female_Hautes-Alpes_9Jul22

 

16322_female_Var_20Jun09 - form valezina

 

16498_female_Var_23Jun09 - form valezina

 

2661_female_Var_11Jul06 - form valezina

 

43040_male_Côte-d'Or_01Jun17

 

18246_male_Isère_12Jul09

 

18401_male_Isère_13Jul09

 

49357_female_Var_8Jun22

 

40761_female_Var_21Jun16

 

11591_female_Var_27Jun08 - form valezina