High brown fritillary facts for kids
Quick facts for kids High brown fritillary |
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The high brown fritillary (scientific name: Fabriciana adippe) is a beautiful, large butterfly. It has bright orange wings with black patterns. You can find it in Europe and across Asia, all the way to Japan. This butterfly belongs to the Nymphalidae family, also known as brush-footed butterflies. In Great Britain, it's a very special and rare butterfly, listed as a vulnerable species. This means it needs our help to survive! Like many fritillary butterflies, it loves warm places with lots of violet plants.
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Discovering the High Brown Fritillary
The high brown fritillary usually has a wingspan of about 65 millimeters. Its top wings are orange with black spots and lines. The undersides of its wings are a duller orange with white and brown markings. When it flies, it can look very similar to another butterfly called the dark green fritillary. Both male and female high brown fritillaries look quite alike.
Baby high brown fritillaries, called larvae or caterpillars, are brown. They have a single white stripe running down their body. Their bodies are covered in brown spikes. These spikes help them blend in with dead fern leaves, keeping them safe from birds and other predators.
Where High Brown Fritillaries Live
This butterfly lives in many places, with different types found across Europe, Asia, and even parts of Africa. They need areas with mild temperatures to thrive. Sadly, in Northern Europe, the number of high brown fritillaries has dropped a lot. However, you can still find many of them in other parts of Europe.
In Great Britain, the high brown fritillary is one of the most endangered butterfly species. As of 2015, only four main areas in Great Britain still have good populations. These include the Morecambe Bay Limestone hills, the Glamorgan Brackenlands, Dartmoor and Exmoor.
High Brown Fritillary Habitats
High brown fritillaries need two main types of homes to live and grow: areas with lots of bracken ferns and places with limestone rocks. Bracken habitats are found in many places where the butterfly lives. Limestone habitats are mostly found in Great Britain.
Bracken Habitats
These habitats are usually in open fields at lower elevations. They often face south to get plenty of sunshine. The plants here are not very diverse. You might find common ivies, tormentil, wood anemone, and especially violets. Violets are very important for the caterpillars! The best breeding spots have lots of bracken, with dead bracken leaves covering the ground. You might also see grassy patches mixed in.
In spring, areas with dead bracken often have thinner grass. This allows the ground to get much warmer than surrounding areas. The extra warmth helps the caterpillars grow faster. This makes bracken-rich areas perfect for butterflies to lay their eggs.
Limestone Outcropping Habitats
These special habitats are mainly found in Great Britain, especially on the limestone soils around Morecambe Bay. Often, these rocky areas are shaped by human activities and land management. Butterflies lay their eggs on limestone soil or near bracken. In other parts of Great Britain, these butterflies mostly live in thick clumps of bracken.
What High Brown Fritillaries Eat
What do these butterflies eat? It depends on whether they are a caterpillar or an adult butterfly!
Larvae Food
Unlike some other caterpillars, high brown fritillary larvae do not eat their eggshells. Instead, they mostly munch on young violet plants. They prefer the newest, freshest growth. They stay close to these food plants, eating a lot before they change into a pupa.
Adult Food
Adult high brown fritillaries don't eat a huge variety of plants. Both males and females mostly feed on bramble blossoms and common knapweed. You might also see them sipping nectar from different thistle species, betony, and ragwort. They also love visiting gardens, especially if there are Buddleja plants, which are often called butterfly bushes!
Life Cycle and Reproduction
The high brown fritillary goes through four main stages in its life: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa, and adult butterfly. This is called a complete life cycle.
Egg Laying
Female butterflies lay their eggs one by one from mid-July until winter begins. The eggs then stay through the winter (this is called overwintering) and hatch in mid-March. It can be tricky to watch a female lay eggs because the eggs are very similar in color to her egg-laying tube (ovipositor). Females often search carefully for good spots. They prefer to lay eggs on firm ground, not loose plant material. In rocky areas, eggs are laid in short plants next to limestone with good moss cover. In bracken areas, eggs are laid in groups within thick bracken clumps. Dead bracken leaves, moss, and other decaying plants are popular spots for eggs.
Larvae Stage
Once the tiny high brown fritillary larvae hatch in mid-March, they start eating almost right away, usually on violet plants. When they are not eating, which is most of the time, they hide among the plants. They are active during the day (diurnal) and need warmth. They often sunbathe to raise their body temperature. This helps them grow faster. The eggs are laid in sunny spots, and the larvae move towards places warmed by the sun and plants. If it gets too hot, the larvae will hide under plants to cool down between meals.
Pupa Stage
Around June, before changing into a pupa, the caterpillar creates a silk pad on a leaf. It then hangs upside down from this silk. This is when it enters the pupal stage. This stage usually lasts about a month, but it can be shorter or longer depending on the temperature. Scientists are still learning more about this stage.
Adult Butterfly
The adult high brown fritillary only has one generation (brood) each year. This is called being a univoltine species. You can see them flying from late June to late August. In some limestone areas, they might even fly until September. In other places, their flying season is shorter, from mid-June to early August. They are most active in warm weather, flying low over bracken and other plants.
Protecting the High Brown Fritillary
The high brown fritillary population, especially in Great Britain, is in serious trouble. It has disappeared from over 90% of the places it used to live. This makes it a very important species for conservation. It used to be common across the United Kingdom, but its numbers have dropped greatly. It is legally protected in the UK under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. The main reason for this decline in Britain is changes in how land is managed, especially during the 20th century.
Habitat Loss
Fritillaries that lived in woodlands have been hit hardest by habitat loss. These butterflies relied on a traditional way of managing forests called coppicing. This technique, where trees are cut back to the stump to regrow, has almost disappeared from Great Britain. Less coppicing, along with new tree planting and forest growth, has greatly reduced the open, sunny bracken habitats where fritillaries thrive. Even in existing bracken areas, populations can decline if the bracken grows too thick or if grazing animals accidentally trample the important plants the butterflies need.
Conservation Projects
To help the high brown fritillary recover, conservation groups are focusing on managing bracken habitats. They are checking bracken sites to decide the best next steps. There are plans to clear dead bracken in winter and cut paths in summer to create good conditions. The high brown fritillary remains one of the Butterfly Conservation's top priority projects.
The Wilder Blean project is another exciting effort. Led by the Wildwood Trust and Kent Wildlife Trust, this project brought European bison back to the UK in 2022 after 6000 years! The bison help create open, sunny patches in the woods. These patches encourage the growth of plants like cow wheat, which are important for the fritillary. A herd of three female and one male bison were released into a 2,500-acre conservation area in Blean Woods near Canterbury.