Welcome to Dave McCormick's Moth and Butterfly World. Here is information the European Map (Araschnia levana). Hear Scientific Name

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Information

The Map (Araschnia levana) is a butterfly of the Nymphalidae family. It is widespread in central Europe and is found in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as France and other places around this area.

In the UK this species is a very rare vagrant, but there have also been several unsuccessful – and now illegal – attempts at introducing this species over the past 100 years or so: in the Wye Valley in 1912, the Wyre Forest in the 1920s, South Devon 1942, Worcester 1960s, Cheshire 1970s, South Midlands 1990s.

All these introductions failed and eggs or caterpillars have never been recorded in the wild in the UK. (Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is now illegal to release a non-native species into the wild.)

There was a single record of an adult map butterfly at Friday Street in Surrey in England, where it was found among bilberry and was caught by D. Down on 21st May, 1982. This could have been an immigrant, because of a considerable  immigration of Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta) and other immigrants at the time and it could have came from northern France with the immigrants, but it could have also been an accidental import or escapee from captivity, no one really knows.

If sometime in the future, a significant amount of adults manage to cross the Channel from France, there should be no reason why this species could not naturally establish itself in the South-east of England, where it is usually a few degrees warmer than other parts of the UK. This was remarked by Howarth (1973).

This butterfly is found either bivoltine or trivoltine, depending on the location it is found and can be found from April to September. It is found in woodland clearings and margins and scrub from 0-1400 meters above sea level.

Similar Species

Summer version looks like miniature White Admiral (Ladoga Camilla) in flight and Spring versions look like Spotted Fritillary (Melitaea Didyma).

Known Aberrations

To be completed

Adult Images
Image/Page Link	Date Taken	Taken By
Information   Location: Mountstewart, Co Down, Northern Ireland. I bred this from a pupae I had and this photo shows the butterfly drying its wings, showing the pattered underside that looks like a map, giving this butterfly the name Map. This is not a very good shot because I used the flash on camera and made the photo appear like this. I took this with my Samsung L85 on 09/04/2007.	09/04/2007	David McCormick

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Mating Images

None

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Caterpillar Images

The pupae hibernates overwinter.

Caterpillar Images
Image/Page Link	Date Taken	Taken By
Information   Location: Mountstewart, Co Down, Northern Ireland. Here are a shot of some pupae of the European Map butterfly I got to breed. These hatched into adults not long after I got these. I took this with my Samsung L85 on 09/02/2007.	09/02/2007	David McCormick
Information   Location: Mountstewart, Co Down, Northern Ireland. This is not a great shot, but you can see wing of the butterfly inside the pupae on this shot. I took this with my Samsung L85 on 09/02/2007.	09/02/2007	David McCormick

(c) David McCormick 2009