Friendly Frustrating Fritillaries
Phenology – “a branch of science concerned with the relationship between climate and periodic biological phenomena (as the migration of birds or the flowering and fruiting of plants).”
Friendly, Frustrating Butterflies
Fritillaries are large, colorful butterflies that are commonly seen throughout the North Country in late summer. The picture above captures the pattern of black spots on an orange background that defines the fritillaries.
Fritillaries encompass two genera: Silvered Fritillaries (Speyeria) and Lesser Fritillaries (Boloria). I went on-line to find the meaning of these Latin words, and an amazing web-site translated Speyreria and Boloria into Speyeria and Boloria and further informed me that they were groups of butterflies. Another search resulted in the same thing, but further informed me that Speyeria butterflies are sometimes called the “Greater Fritillaries” as well as Silvered Fritillaries. OK. These AI programs never studied Latin. At least they tell us that there are two groups of fritillaries, big ones and little ones.
In the North Country, we can expect to find three species of the big ones (Great Spangled, Aphrodite, and Atlantis.) and three of the little ones (Silver-bordere, Bog, and Meadow Fritillaries.)
Fritillaries abound when Joe Pye Weed, echinacea, and lilies bloom in late summer. These are friendly butterflies, quite happy to pose on these flowers or any available perch found on the roadside or along the shore of a pond. I have hundreds of close-up photos of these large, intricately-patterned, distinctive creatures, which suggests that I should easily be able to select lovely photos of the half dozen species found in the North Country. Don’t I wish that were the case!
At first glance, the fritillaries all look the same! In addition to good photos, you need an eye for detail, a guidebook, and perhaps a magnifying glass (for close examination of the photos in the guidebook). And you may also wish you had estimated the wingspan of the butterfly that you have photographed. The difficulty of species identification is why writing this essay has been more than a little frustrating.
It was especially aggravating to find the following quote in Paul A. Opler and Vichai Malikul’s Field Guide to Eastern Butterflies:
“In some western areas, several species occurring together may be difficult to identify, but our eastern species usually pose no problems.”
My experience suggests that identifying species always poses problems – unless you don’t care whether your identifications are correct!
First Encounters
Since I have all of my journal entries in a single file, I can quickly find all mentions of fritillaries just by searching for “fritillary.” I have also sorted my photos of fritillaries in a a series of folders on my computer - one for Sugar Hill, one for New Hampshire, and several for other locations. When I started working on this essay, I searched for interesting entries about fritillaries and then looked for photos that could be used in this essay. In many cases, I could find a journal entry that described something about a photo I had selected.
As I pursued this type of inquiry for too many hours, I recalled that my friend Tony was responsible for my initial interest and knowledge of fritillaries. Tony is a Master Naturalist, and we have made many excursions in search of wildlife in the forests, sea shores, and wetlands of New England and Virginia. He and his wife Shirley retired to the Eastern Shore of Virgina nearly thirty years ago. On one of our first visits to his new home, he led us through the fields and forest to an opening created by a recent clear-cut. Nancy and I were listening to bird song and marveling at the abundance of wildflowers and tiny trees when suddenly Tony shouted out “OMG, a fritillary!” Nancy and I, glanced at each other, highly amused by Tony’s excitement, and I politely asked the obvious question: “What is a fritillary?” Tony groaned at our ignorance, then explained that it was a beautiful butterfly rarely seen in that part of Virginia. I didn’t actually see that fritillary, but I’ll never forget Tony’s excitement.
A couple of years after that, Tony again brought fritillaries to my attention as we went for a walk around the Pond.
August 17, 2003. Four turtles sunning at the point caught my interest, but Tony was more excited by the butterflies on Joe Pye Hill: a viceroy, fritillaries, wood nymphs and wood satyrs, and skippers.
I finally managed to take some photos of fritillaries in July 2005. The one below shows one sitting on an echinacea, a tall flower with a magnificent blossom. I now know that fritillaries love echinaceas. When these flowers are blooming, I make sure to bring my camera out to what is likely to be an outstanding photo op.
July 26, 2005. A good day for butterflies. I took a picture of a large fritillary on Nancy’s mound garden.
A couple of weeks later, Tony and Shirley visited, and we spent a bright, sunny afternoon at Pondicherry. I was making a list of the butterflies and dragonflies that we encountered as we walked down the rail trail when Tony, nearly as excited as he had been in Virginia, pointed out what he identified as a Silver-bordered Fritillary sitting on a leaf at the side of the trail. This identification could only have come from Tony, the inveterate Master Naturalist who hosted butterfly observation days on his own fields in Virginia.
Thinking that this early sighting of a fritillary would fit well into this essay, I looked for and eventually found the picture I took on that day. Imagine my surprise when I found that the photo was mistakenly labeled “Atlantis Fritillary”. Tony recognized this butterfly as a Lesser Fritillary, one that looks like but is much smaller than the Atlantis Fritillary. I realized my mistake only when working on this essay, and that is one cause of my frustration with these butterflies!
August 19, 2005. Tony and I went it to Pondicherry. A great day for butterflies: Northern Pearly Eye, Crescents, Viceroys, Harris Checkerspot, and Silver-bordered Fritillaries. The fritillary only goes about 3-10 feet per hop along the shore or along the road.
And there is one more reason for frustration. This butterfly and its favorite flower are two of the most difficult words that you could encounter in a spelling bee. Without looking back, can you say what comes after F-R-I-T …? Are you sure about the Ts and Ls? Are you sure whether that letter near the end is an A or an E? In my journal, I found multiple spellings, including frittilery, fritillery, and fritillary. To remember what’s correct, I now use the same method that a fellow consultant used to remember how to spell the tax on imports. Is it tarrif, tariff, or tarriff? Eric said it’s simple to remember: one R, two Fs. With the fritillary, it’s one T, two Ls and an A. That’s not so hard, but how on earth are supposed to spell the flower whose name sounds like ACK – IN -NA – SHA? I used this word above and it passed the spell checker, so you take a guess right now and then check to see if you’re correct. There are so many possible spellings that I can’t begin to think how Eric would have handled this.
The Greater Fritillaries
If a fritillary has a wingspan nearly as wide as the back of your hand, then it is one of the Greater Fritillaries. If its forewing has a black border, then it is an Atlantis Fritillary. In the photo below, the black borders of this large fritillary’s indicate that it is an Atlantis Fritillary.
July 18, 2020, 75 degrees, sunny, breezy, great! In the afternoon, I went to the power lines to photograph butterflies. Fritillaries, skippers and commas active along Pearl Lake Road.
The other two Greater Fritillaries found in the North Country lack the black border. The Great Spangled is larger, which doesn’t help if you’re just looking at one fritillary or at a photo. A better characteristic is the width of the yellow sub-marginal band on the underside of the hind wing, which is wide for the Great Spangled and narrow for the Aphrodite.
Aphrodite Fritillary, July 26, 2005. Notice the narrow band of yellow toward the outside of the hind wing.
Great Spangled Fritillary, July 13, 2019. 2005. Notice the wide band of yellow toward the outside of the hind wing.
The best characteristic is when there is a great size difference between two large fritillaries. This can be easy to see if a bunch of fritillaries are buzzing around a patch of Joe Pye Weed, but you have to be sure to note which ones are the large ones. The photo below is a rare one that captures two fritillaries; the butterfly in the back has a 13% greater wingspan even though it is further from the camera, so that is indeed a Great Spangled Fritillary. A different photo of the smaller one showed the black border on its wings, confirming that it was an Atlantis Fritillary.
July 26, 2005. One of my first photos of fritillary turned out to be the only one of mine that shows two species visiting the same flowers.
The Lesser Fritillaries
According to Warren J. Kiel’s guidebook The Butterflies of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Silver-bordered and Meadow Fritillaries are found in open fields and moist meadows, while the Bog Fritillary’s habitat is limited to good-sized sphagnum-moss bogs. If you’re not sinking into a bog, then the very small fritillary you’ve found will either be a Silver-bordered or a Meadow Fritillary. A close inspection will show whether or not there is a black border along the edge of its forewing. If so, then it is a Silver-bordered Fritillary; if not, then it is a Meadow Fritillary. The meadow fritillary is also the only fritillary lacking the conspicuous white spots on the underside of its hind wing.
August 18, 2020, 70 degrees, partly cloudy, 1530-1600. A small fritillary in the front yard, which I later identified to be a Meadow Fritillary, is the only fritillary that lacks the usual silver spots found on the underside of their hindwings.
I have already mentioned that my friend Tony identified some Silver-bordered Fritillaries that we came across walking along the rail trail in Pondicherry twenty years ago. When I searched through my journal entries and my photographs of fritillaries, I found no further evidence of one of these. However, I was pretty excited when I came across this entry::
August 23, 2021, 84 degrees, mostly cloudy. Photos of fritillaries:
· 1628: medium-sized, by the end of the dam.
· 1636: very large, probably a Great Spangled, on asters on the dam.
· 1640: very small, on asters on dam
I eventually found these three photos, all of which I had identified each as an Atlantis Fritillary, because they each had the requisite black border on their forewings. However, since my journal entry cited the great difference in size, I took a closer look at the photos. The very large one and the medium one were indeed Atlantis Fritillaries, but the one that I had observed to be “very small one” wouldn’t be any of the Greater Fritillaries, and the Silver-bordered Fritillary is the only Lesser Fritillary in our region that has a black border on its forewings.
August 23, 2021. This Silver-Bordered Fritillary looks pretty much like an Atlantis Fritillary, because of the black border on its wings. However, when I found that I had noted that it was “very small,” I realized that it was one of the lesser fritillaries, and the other two options lacked the black border.
When and Where to Look for Fritillaries
I only have a few journal entries of any of the fritillaries in June or after Labor Day. The best time to see them will be on a sunny day in late summer.
July 31, 2016, 70 degrees and cloudy at 11am; the first chilly morning in a long while. By mid-afternoon, it was very quiet by the pond. Only a couple of redwings calling in the reeds by the pond. When the sun came out, a few bullfrogs made a dispirited attempt to start a chorus; one would call, but it would be 15-30 seconds before another one would answer. I was bored with the lack of activity in the pond, so I went to Joe Pye Hill, where the bees buzzed and a great spangled fritillary posed with its wings open for several pictures.
The ideal conditions for fritillaries and other late summer butterflies came on a cool, calm day in early September back in 2019:
September 3, 2019, 64 degrees, partly sunny. At 4pm, it was now mostly sunny and absolutely calm, so that the pond was a mirror, great conditions for what was the best butterflies of the year, and perhaps of our 22 years:
At least four monarchs on asters at the far end of the dam, two or three at our end, and four or more on Joe Pye Hill.
A viceroy, a sulfur, a red-spotted purple and common ringlets joined the monarchs along the dam.
A great-spangled fritillary chased another one of the monarchs at the end of the dam.
Where to look for fritillaries? Gardens, meadows, overgrown meadows, roadsides. Keep your eyes open and your camera at the ready. But get out before Labor Day, or your summer, like this last fritillary, will be a blurred memory.
Photos and text by Carl D. Martland, founding member of ACT, long-time resident of Sugar Hill, and author of Sugar Hill Days: What’s Happening in the Fields, Wetlands, and Forests of a Small New Hampshire Town on the Western Edge of the White Mountain. Quotations from his book and his journals indicate the dates of and the situations depicted in the photos.
