Silver-washed Fritillary on mint

Argynnis paphia

Silver-washed Fritillary · Slovenian Alps · 1 September 2023

A Silver-washed Fritillary on wild mint at a woodland edge in the Slovenian Alps in September. It is Europe's largest fritillary, a butterfly of woodland rides and clearings from Britain to Japan, and common along Alpine woodland edges in late summer where there is bramble and mint to feed on.

A male: the four thick dark streaks along the veins of the forewing are scent scales, which only the males carry, and they settle an identification that the general checkered orange-and-black, shared by half a dozen European fritillaries, would not. The long uncoiled proboscis reaching into the mint is doing the actual work. A fritillary's tongue can be longer than its own body.