Dark green fritillary
The dark green fritillary is a big, fast orange butterfly with black dots and lines on top. Its name comes from underneath: the back wings are greenish and covered in shiny silver spots. It loves sunny, flowery places.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
When the caterpillar hatches, it first eats its own eggshell and then goes straight to sleep for the whole winter.
It wakes up in spring and starts munching violet leaves.
The mum lays her eggs in high summer, on or near violets.
The first one ever described by scientists came from Sweden, in 1758.
Most asked questions about Dark green fritillary
?Why is it called dark green fritillary when it is orange?
Because of the greenish colour with silver spots under its back wings.
?What does the dark green fritillary eat?
The caterpillars eat violets and the butterflies drink nectar from flowers like thistles and knapweed.
?Where does the dark green fritillary live?
In Europe, North Africa and across Asia to Japan.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Speyeria aglaja
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Dark green 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 Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same 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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