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Sticker of Glanville fritillary
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Glanville fritillary

Melitaea cinxia
Name means: “fritillary comes from the Latin word for a dice box, because of the checkered wings. Glanville is for Lady Eleanor Glanville, who found it”
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesGardens and meadows6 legs

The Glanville fritillary is an orange butterfly with black and white checks, like a little chessboard. On its back wings there is a row of round black dots. It loves dry, sunny meadows.

Lives in
Europe, northwest Africa and temperate Asia, in dry sunny meadows
Wingspan
3.3 to 4 cm (1.3 to 1.6 in)
Top speed
about 12 km/h (7.5 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The butterflies drink nectar from flowers. The caterpillars eat ribwort plantain and spiked speedwell.
For real!Photo of Glanville fritillary
Picture by Gilles San Martin from Namur, Belgium. CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Glanville fritillary wings about 4 cm tip to tip (1.6 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 7 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 32 seconds

How big is Glanville fritillary compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It spends most of its life as a caterpillar. The grown-up butterfly lives only a short time.

2

The caterpillars are spiny and black with tiny white dots and a reddish brown head.

3

Brothers and sisters stay together in a group after hatching from their eggs.

4

The caterpillars take a long rest through the winter and wake up in spring.

5

Lady Glanville loved butterflies so much that some relatives said she must be mad. Today a butterfly carries her name.

you asked

Most asked questions about Glanville fritillary

?What does the Glanville fritillary eat?

The butterfly drinks flower nectar. Its caterpillars eat plantain and speedwell leaves.

?How big is the Glanville fritillary?

Its wings are about 3.5 to 4 centimetres from tip to tip.

?Where can you see a Glanville fritillary?

In sunny, dry meadows across Europe and Asia. In Britain it lives mostly on the Isle of Wight.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Melitaea cinxia
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Glanville 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.
  2. Picture by Gilles San Martin from Namur, Belgium. CC BY-SA 2.0, 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 hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows