Glanville Fritillary Butterfly
Latin name: Melitaea cinxia
The Glanville Fritillary favours habitat where the topsoil is regularly disturbed allowing its larval foodplant (ribwort plantain) and nectar sources (dandelion, hawkweeds, bird's-foot trefoil and thrift) to flourish. For this reason, it is most likely to be encountered on cliff sides on sunny days and forms small discrete colonies, with little contact between them. It is perhaps more common in Alderney than anywhere else in the British Isles, but it is a vulnerable species, liable to sudden arrivals and disappearances. In Guernsey it is making a comeback, but it has disappeared completely from Jersey in the past decade.
Listed as a Section 41 species of principal importance under the NERC Act in England
UK BAP status: Priority Species
Butterfly Conservation priority: High
European Status: Not threatened
Protected in Great Britain for sale only