Superfamily: Papilionoidea Family: Nymphalidae Status: Vagrant to Madeira
Medium sized, bright orange butterfly with distinctive roundish black spots on its uppersides and silver spots on its underside hind-wings. Sexes are indistinctive.
The caterpillars are dark brown to black, covered with tiny white dots and rows of spikes along the back and sides.
It normally feeds in violets from Viola genus.
It is unknown if Issoria lathonia breeds in Madeira but some years it is common to see it while in others it is an uncommon species (Aguiar & Karsholt, 2006).
In Europe they are usually found in high altitude dry meadows and open environments.
Occurs in Madeira & Canary Islands (Aguiar & Karsholt, 2006)
Regional status according to Aguiar & Karsholt, 2008: Migrant to Madeira
Regional status according to Wakeham-Dawson et al., 2001: Rare migrant
Status according to the European Red List of Butterflies, 2010: Least Concern
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