About Boloria titania (Esper, 1793)
The species Boloria titania (Esper, 1793) is a small fritillary butterfly. Adult individuals have a typically chequered orange-brown upperside to their wings, with a marginal row of triangles and dots. Forewing length ranges from 21 to 23 mm. The underside of the wings features brown pearly spots, and triangular markings along the edge of the hindwings. Seitz's description notes this taxon, under the synonymized name A. amathusia Esp., is similar above to large specimens of Boloria euphrosyne. The underside of the hindwing is very characteristic: it is strongly variegated with purple, its distal band is deeply dentate on both sides, and it bears purple-brown dots that are partly pale-centred. In the nymotypical form, the underside of the forewing also has pointed teeth at the distal margin that project far onto the disc, and this form occurs in the Alps. The subspecies bivina Fruhst. is the eastern European form; it is smaller and paler, with somewhat thinner lilac markings, darker on the wing undersides, and the median band of the hindwing is more uniformly yellow and not variegated with red. This form originates from Saratow. In the subspecies sibirica Stgr. (B. titania ssp. staudingeri Wnukowsky, 1929), the band occupying the distal area is much less deeply and more evenly indented on both sides; this subspecies comes from the mountains of South-West Siberia. This species occurs across the Palearctic realm, ranging from central Europe to Siberia and the Altai. Small isolated populations are found in the European Alps, southern Finland, Latvia, Poland, and the Balkans.
