Fluturat e Shqipërisë
Butterflies of Albania

Sylvain Cuvelier =
Anila Paparisto =

Last update: 20.xii.2023

Melitaea cinxia / Glanville Fritillary
Cinksia
Nymphalidae - Nymphalinae

Melitaea cinxia (Linnaeus, 1758). TL: Sweden.

1a. Melitaea cinxia, distribution map. Historical data ; Additional data from the 2018 update ; New observations since the 2018 update.
1b. Melitaea cinxia ♂ upperside. Greece (© Sylvain Cuvelier)
1c. Melitaea cinxia ♀ upperside. Albania (© Marjanne Foppen)
1d. Melitaea cinxia ♀ upperside. Albania (© Marjanne Foppen)
1e. Melitaea cinxia ♂ underside. Albania (© Eddy Oorthuysen)
1f. Melitaea cinxia ♂ upperside. Vig, Albania (© Sylvain Cuvelier)

Description
♂♂
Medium size butterfly. Fw: 16-20 mm.
Ups: bright fulvous gc, complete black pattern.
Unh: distant, small marginal spots, small black spots in orange marginal band, concave black proximal lunules in orange marginal band.
♀♀
Larger.
Ups: slightly paler gc, often grey suffused, heavier black markings.

Similar species

Melitaea arduinna P (never recorded from Albania) Size:similar or slightly larger. ♂♂ Upf: bright orange gc. Uph: dotted discal markings, bright orange gc. Uph: fine black markings. Uph: conspicuous black sm spots. Unh: convex proximal black lunules. Unh: conspicuous black sm spots. ♀♀ Upf: heavier marked, bichrome suffused gc. Uph: bichrome, often grey suffused gc. Unh: convex proximal black lunules. Unh: conspicuous black sm spots.

Life cycle
Adults: one or two generations depending on altitude, from April to first half of August.
Egg: 20-28 days.
Caterpillar: overwintering as L4 larva.
Pupa: 12-29 days.

Habitat
Melitaea cinxia inhabits flowery meadows with scattered bushes, open spaces in woodland and alpine grasslands from lowland up to 2000 m a.s.l.
Spatial requirement modest, population density can be high, nomadic.

Foodplants
Caterpillars feed mailny on Plantago lanceolata, P. media and Veronica spicata, also mentioned are Centaurea deustiformis, C. jacea, Pilosella officinarum, Plantago coronopus, P. major, P. maritima, P. subulata, Veronica austriaca, V. chamaedrys, V. officinalis, V. serpyllifolia, V. spicata and V. urticifolia.
Butterflies feed on a variety of flowers in the herb vegetation.

Distribution
Albania: widespread in the Northern Albanian Alps, local in other mountain areas.
Balkan: AL - BG - BIH - GR - HR - NMK - MNE - RKS - RO - SLO - SRB
Europe: IB - IT - ALP - BAL - NWE - UK* - SCA* - EEU
Asia Minor, Near East, Transcaucasia, Caucasus and further east.

Conservation status
Melitaea cinxia is not endangered.
Albanian Red List: LC.
IUCN Red List, category at the Mediterranean level: LC.

Useful links
Bink 2015
Pyrgus.de
Lepiforum
Euroleps

Contact