sanctuaryofwings
Duke of burgundy fritillary (Hamearis lucina), a species in the family Riodinidae.
Photo: Didier Descouens · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA

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Contents
  1. Identification
  2. Range and habitat
  3. Life cycle and host plants
  4. Behaviour and flight period
  5. Similar species

The Duke of Burgundy, Hamearis lucina, is a small, chequered butterfly of the Western Palaearctic and the only European member of the metalmark family, Riodinidae. It is restricted in Britain to central southern England, with scattered colonies in Cumbria and Yorkshire, and absent from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Its old name, Duke of Burgundy fritillary, comes from a resemblance that is only skin deep: it looks like a true fritillary but belongs to an entirely different family.

Identification

This is a small butterfly, with a wingspan of 29 to 34mm. The upperside carries the chequered orange-and-brown pattern that gave the species its old name, a pattern strongly reminiscent of the “true” fritillaries of the family Nymphalidae, even though the Duke of Burgundy belongs to the unrelated family Riodinidae; the two groups can be told apart by wing shape. The sexes look broadly similar, but females carry more orange on the wings and have rounder forewing tips than males.

Range and habitat

The species ranges across the Western Palaearctic, from Spain, the UK and Sweden to the Balkans. It was historically a woodland butterfly, flying in dappled clearings in ancient woodland, but in Britain today it is found mostly on chalk and limestone grassland, favouring north- or west-facing slopes with tussocky vegetation. Both habitats depend on the same narrow balance: enough grazing or scrub clearance to keep the ground open, but not so much that the tussocks and sheltered banks the butterfly needs disappear with it.

Life cycle and host plants

Caterpillars feed on cowslip (Primula veris) and primrose (Primula vulgaris) in the UK, with false oxlip (Primula x polyantha) used at a few colonies; elsewhere in Europe they also use oxlip (Primula elatior). Which of the two main British plants a female chooses tends to follow the habitat: primrose where the colony is still woodland-based, cowslip on open grassland. She looks for large, lush, green-leaved plants growing among grasses or close to scrub, and lays singly or in small batches of three or four eggs on the underside of a leaf edge; each egg hatches after 7 to 21 days. The caterpillar passes through four instars over about four weeks, feeding at night and stopping below 11°C, before pupating; the pupa is only about 9mm long and may spend around nine months in that stage before the adult emerges the following spring. The species passes the winter as a chrysalis, and in Britain there is normally one generation a year.

Behaviour and flight period

In the UK the adults form a single brood, emerging in late April and peaking in mid-May, with an occasional partial second brood at some southern sites. The sexes behave very differently on the wing. Males are extremely territorial, holding a favourite perch and darting out to inspect anything that might be a passing female, flying fast between sorties. Females are calmer, moving slowly between food plants and landing on the edge of a leaf before curling the abdomen to lay an egg on the underside. Mating itself happens without any obvious courtship, typically in mid-morning once a female has emerged. Adults are not great nectar feeders, visiting flowers only occasionally and usually in warmer weather, and roosting instead in tall scrub or trees. Colonies tend to be small and scattered: a few are relatively large, but most hold only around a dozen individuals at the peak of the flight season, and the species has suffered a steep decline in Britain, with occurrence down 89% and abundance down 36% between 1976 and 2019.

Similar species

  • Queen of Spain fritillary (Issoria lathonia): a true fritillary with the same orange-and-black chequering; the Duke of Burgundy’s smaller size and different wing shape separate the two.
  • Marsh fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia): another true fritillary sharing the Duke of Burgundy’s chalk and limestone grassland habitat in Britain, and a source of the same old confusion between Riodinidae and Nymphalidae chequered patterns.