A rather rare and localised species that occurs in France only in the northern regions of the French Alpes. It is equally localised in the other parts of its European range in Switzerland and Austria, although its distribution extends into eastern Asia (hence the name). It has a relatively early flight period for a high altitude (1600-2100m) species, hence the condition of the only one I had seen as of 20 July 2016.

In 2018 I visited the same site at which I saw 41757 but, even though fifty species were seen there, intermedia was not one of them. I then went on to another known site in Savoie, and was delighted to find them in reasonable numbers, warming up in mid-morning on a patch of Alpenrose (Rhododendron ferrugineum). They were showing very slight signs of wear despite the fact that 2018 was a very late season, and they had a habit of sitting with wings curved slightly down which made the task of getting decent photographs rather more challenging. Nevertheless, it was the highlight of my 2018 trip to the Alpes.

It is very similar to its lowland cousin, the Scarce Fritillary (E. maturna), although their biotopes are very different and their ranges do not overlap (by some margin). Given that they have clearly evolved from a common ancestor, it is interesting to ponder how maturna is very much a lowland species and intermedia a montane (usually 2000m) species, and there are no intermediary (in terms of altitude) forms. Contrast this with the Marsh Fritillary (E. aurinia) which has evolved a range of subspecies across the complete spectrum of lowland to high altitude.

The subspecies that occurs in the Alpes is wolfensbergeri.

observations