Marsh fritillary
The marsh fritillary is a small butterfly with a checked pattern of orange, brown and yellow, like a little patchwork quilt. It got its name from marshes, one of the places where it lives. Its caterpillars are black and live together in big groups.
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Fun facts
The caterpillars spin a silk tent on their food plant and spend the winter inside it all together.
It stays a caterpillar for seven to eight months, much longer than it stays a butterfly.
The female lays her yellow eggs in a big batch on the underside of one leaf.
It can live from low meadows all the way up to 2200 metres in the mountains.
It has become rare in many countries and is protected by law in Britain.
Most asked questions about Marsh fritillary
?How big is the marsh fritillary?
Its wings are about 3 to 5 cm across. The females are bigger than the males.
?What do marsh fritillary caterpillars eat?
Mainly devil's-bit scabious, a meadow plant. They also spend the winter on it inside a silk web.
?Is the marsh fritillary rare?
It has become rare in many parts of Europe, so it is protected in several countries.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Euphydryas aurinia
- Named by
- Rottemburg, 1775
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Marsh 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 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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