Search Results for: Dark Green Fritillary

An orange butterfly with black and some white markings on a purple flower

Dark Green Fritillary. Photo: Jane Hopper

An orange butterfly with black and some white markings on a purple flower.

Dark Green Fritillary. Photo: Jane Hopper

Two photos from a very happy Jane sent in telling us:

Yesterday, 01/07/2026, brought an exciting butterfly visitor onto my home patch in Chalmington.  Initially I saw a rapid flypast and thought it might be a Silver-washed Fritillary which we see fairly often in the summer.  A bit later I noticed a big orange and brown butterfly feeding on the Knapweed and realised when I saw the spots on the underwing that it was our first Dark Green Fritillary. Happily for me, it continued feeding long enough for a few photos to be taken.

An orange butterfly with black markings and a white fringe to the wings resting on a green leaf.

Dark Green Fritillary. Photo: Nick Galer

An orange butterfly with black markings and a white fringe to the wings resting on a green leaf.

Dark Green Fritillary. Photo: Nick Galer

Two photos from Nick sent in telling us:

I returned to Badbury Rings today, 26/06/2026 hoping to catch the Dark Green Fritillaries in a calmer state. There was a cooler breeze this morning which brought them down to feed on Knapweed in the channels.

An orange and brown butterfly with black and white markings on some green vegetation

Dark Green Fritillary. Photo: Nick Galer

A blue and silvery grey butterfly with black and orange markings and a white fringe to the wings resting on some vegetation

Silver-studded Blue. Photo: Nick Galer

Two photos from Nick sent in telling us:

Another early morning for me today, 25/06/2026 this time to Badbury Rings. Multiple species about including slightly unusually, a Silver-studded Blue. However, my highlight was the stunning Dark Green Fritillaries who rarely seem to stop to pose for a photo.

A brown butterfly with some yellow markings on green vegetation

Ringlet. Photo: Mark Pike

An orange butterfly with black and white markings on green vegetation

Dark Green Fritillary. Photo: Mark Pike

Two photos from Mark sent in telling us:

A couple of hours at Badbury Rings today, 14/06/2026 saw a good selection of species darting around today, including a couple of Dark Green Fritillaries that passed me going about 100mph! However, the freshly emerged one here that I thought was going to be easy to photograph suddenly up and went after just this one grabbed shot, although it was rather groggy!

Orange butterfly with black dots and lines on a knapweed flower

Dark Green Fritillary. Photo: Ann Barlow

Small butterfly. Forewings are orange with black spots and a brown edge, while the hindwings are brown with an orange edge.

Small Copper. Photo: Ann Barlow

The Dark Green Fritilalry was taken at Badbury Rings on the very breezy evening of 21 June and was the only one she saw. The Small Copper turned up in Hamworthy on 24 June, which she says was a very pleasant surprise.

Small Coppers have up to three broods a year, so could be seen any time between April and October: see our Species page for more detail on flight times

Side view of orange butterfly with a lot of white spots and black marks

Dark Green Fritillary. Photo: Abby Eaton

Side view of brown butterfly with a glimpse of orange on the upperwing, which has a black spot with a white dot in its centre

Meadow Brown. Photo: Abby Eaton

Abby did the transect (butterfly monitoring) wask at Stubhampton Bottom in north Dorset on 17 June and saw these two gorgeous butterflies among others. About the Dark Green Fritillaries she said:

I saw one Dark Green Frit (definitely identifiable as their flight gliding flight pattern is a clue) as I first started transect sector one – it was moving through with purpose – and then the rest were all at that lovely steep grassy bank on the left as you start transect sector five. That was a hive of activity. The DGFs were actively squabbling with the new batch of seven Scarlet Tiger moths (which were all around that single tree in the middle of the route) so I could see them at the same time.

 

Orange butterfly with dark brown streaks and areas on its wings

Dark Green Fritillary ab wimani. Photo:Peter Farrant

Top marks to Peter for recognising this as an aberration of the Dark Green Fritillary which we believe is  ab wimani on the Purbeck coast on 18 June. It took him three sightings to get the shot, but it was well worth it. Peter suggested ab wimani hulmgren, and we think ‘hulmgren’ is the person who first named it – the world of aberrations is an esoteric one with its own rules, so we are not sure whether it should be included or not.

If you want to see a normal Dark Green Fritillary, go to our species page.

An orange coloured butterfly with black and white markings nectaring on a white flower.

Dark Green Fritillary. Photo: Paul Freedman

Paul sent in this photo telling us:

My first Dark Green Fritillary of the season. It is one of two seen this morning, 25/06/2024 in Ulwell, behind the waterworks. They seem rather late this year.

Editor’s Note:  Paul is right about this species being seen later this year – this is likely to be first sighting of one reported to the Dorset Branch of Butterfly Conservation this year – last year, 2023 the first one reported to us was seen on 05/06/2023.