High altitude
form (subalpinus) lacking all orange.
Macedonia,
Greece, July 2004 (f)
Fairly typical
female
Macedonia,
Greece, May 2004 (f)
Extremely
orange female
Les Doubs,
France, May 2004 (m)
Var, France, May
2004 (m)
The male
underside forewing lacks the extensive orange flush of the female.
Les Doubs,
France, May 2004 (f)
Les Doubs,
France, May 2004 (f)
Underside of
female above
Les Doubs,
France, May 2004 (f)
Another female
from same meadow as female above.
Much more orange.
Les Doubs,
France, May 2004 (f)
Yet another
female from same meadow as above.
Intermediate amount of orange.
Kastoria,
Greece, May 2004 (m)
Much
submarginal orange was normal across N Greece in May. Hint of blue in
underside hindwing marginal areas.
Macedonia,
Greece, July 2000 (f)
Female
Piedmont,
Italy, June 2003 (m)
It flies from northern Spain across all of Europe
to Poland and Greece except Scandinavia and the UK. It never seems to be
very common but the individuals that are present are usually rather
conspicuous, flying rapidly about and feeding avidly at flowers. Often
they it in the centre of flowers without feeding, presumably this offers
them a little more warmth but I would have thought at the expense of
camouflage.
The males are indeed sooty - hardly any orange on the uppersides at
all. The high alpine subspecies, subalpinus, looses all upperside
orange even in the females. This subspecies appears to be single
brooded, those of lower altitudes are multiple brooded.