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Boloria alberta Reuss, 1920
Albert's Fritillary; Lesser Fritillaries
Family: Nymphalidae (Brushfoots)
Species account authors: Crispin Guppy and Jon Shepard.
Extracted from Butterflies of British Columbia.
Introduction to the Lepidoptera of BC
Introduction to the Butterflies of BC
The Families of Lepidoptera of BC

Photograph

© Norbert Kondla     (Photo ID #5493)

Map

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Distribution of Boloria alberta in British Columbia.
(Click on the map to view a larger version.)
Source: Butterflies of British Columbia by Crispin Guppy and Jon Shepard © Royal BC Museum

Species Information


Adult

Adults of Albert's Fritillary appear to be melanic and greasy, especially the females. This, however, is the normal appearance of the species and is an easy way to distinguish it from other Clossiana species that occur with it in BC. Most books discuss this species in conjunction with C. tritonia because they have the same habitat, but the two species are not closely related. Dubutolov and Shepard (in prep.) are revising the species in these two sections of Clossiana. Clossiana alberta is closely related to both C. polaris and C. erda (Christoph, 1893).

Immature Stages

Undescribed.

Subspecies

None. The type locality of the species is Laggan [vicinity Lake Louise], AB.

Genus Description


Reuss (1922) stated that he named the genus Clossiana for the recognized entomologist Herr Adolf G. Closs, but it appears that Closs was only a minor worker on Lepidoptera. The common name "lesser fritillaries" refers to the small size compared with Speyeria.

Under the restricted generic usage of Boloria, we state why we recognize the genus Clossiana and define the genus. On the upperside, the wings are very similar to those of Speyeria. Some males of one species of Speyeria, S. mormonia, are as small as the largest females of our largest Clossiana, C. tritonia. Only one species, Clossiana selene, has silver spots on the ventral hindwing. This genus is Holarctic, with at least 21 species; 13 are found in North America and 12 of these occur in BC. Nine BC species are Holarctic. The 4 temperate species, 3 in BC, feed on violets (Viola) but the northern species do not. There has been much confusion in the literature regarding larval foodplants, and we discuss only those verified by Shepard (1975) and later.

Biology


Albert's Fritillary has a very restricted flight period, from early July to early August, with peak flight in late July. Some populations occur only in even-numbered years and others only in odd-numbered years. Thus it takes two years for the species to complete one life cycle from adult to adult. Bean obtained eggs from females confined with Dryas octopetala and other plants; most eggs were laid on the Dryas (Edwards 1887-97). The eggs were laid 20 July and hatched on 30 July. The larvae did not feed. Shepard has also observed the species in association with Dryas, the larval foodplant of the closely related and allopatric species C. polaris. It is assumed that Dryas is also the foodplant of C. alberta, but it remains to be positively proven. Shepard could not get females to lay eggs on Dryas octopetala.

Habitat


Albert's Fritillary is known only from extreme eastern BC along the AB border at and above timberline in the Rockies. Bird et al. (1995) and others who attribute this species to other areas in BC are in error.

Distribution

Distribution

Albert's Fritillary has the most restricted total world distribution of any butterfly that occurs in BC. It is known only from the Rocky Mountains from northern AB and BC south to Glacier National Park, MT. Wyatt described a subspecies of erda from the Tschukotka Mountains of northeastern Siberia as belonging to this species. Shepard has examined colour photographs of the types of C. alberta kurenzovi, and they proved to be a subspecies of C. erda, not C. alberta.

Status Information

Origin StatusProvincial StatusBC List
(Red Blue List)		COSEWIC
NativeS3BlueNot Listed



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