E-Fauna BC: Electronic Atlas of the Wildlife of British Columbia

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.

The Polar Fritillary is found only in the highest and driest mountains of northern BC where the foodplant is common.

The Polar Fritillary is found from AK east through YT, NT, and Labrador, with outlying southern populations at the northern edge of most provinces. The Polar Fritillary and the Arctic Fritillary are found further north than any other butterfly in the Canadian archipelago. The Polar Fritillary is Holarctic, occurring in northern Norway and across extreme northern Russia to eastern Siberia.