About Melitaea trivia (Denis & Schiffermüller), 1775
This species, Melitaea trivia (Denis & Schiffermüller), 1775, has a wingspan of 15 to 23 millimeters. At first glance, it looks somewhat similar to Melitaea didyma. It can be distinguished by black lunules that are united before the wing margin, a strongly flexuose macular band that crosses the wing disc, and abundant connected black markings across the disc of the hindwing. Females have a paler ground colour in the central area of their wings, most noticeably on the forewing. This species is distributed across the southern portion of the Palearctic realm. In Europe, it is sometimes referred to as the desert fritillary, though this name is also used for the closely related North African species M. deserticola. It was first described in 1775 by entomologists Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller, under the original basionym Papilio trivia.
