''Boloria thore'', the Thor's fritillary, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It occurs in damp places in the Alps,

Fennoscandia __NOTOC__ Fennoscandia (Finnish language, Finnish, Swedish language, Swedish and no, Fennoskandia, nocat=1; russian: Фенноскандия, Fennoskandiya) or the Fennoscandian Peninsula is the geographical peninsula in Europe, which includes ...

, the south of

European Russia European Russia (russian: Европейская Россия, russian: европейская часть России, label=none) is the western and most populated part of Russia. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the cou ...

, the Urals and east across the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

to Siberia and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

.Львовский А.Л., Моргун Д.В. 2007. Булавоусые чешуекрылые Восточной Европы. Москва: КМК. . pp. 328-329.Tolman, Tom & Richard Lewington. 1997. ''Butterflies of Britain and Europe. Field Guide.'' London: Collins. . The wingspan is 28–34 mm. Seitz - ''A. thore'' Hbn. (68e). The nymotypical form of this species is easily recognized by the prevalence of black on the upperside. This colour predominates to such a degree as in other species is only the case in melanistic aberrations. Also the ground-colour of the underside is duller than in all the other Argynnis, the hindwing varying from dark brick-red to cinnamon-brown, only the median band being dark yellow. In the Alps, but at moderates heights in the forest region, not above 6000 ft. Also in the high North, Scandinavia and Finland. Northern specimens on the whole paler than alpine ones. Seitz. A. in Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, ''Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter'', 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren)

Biology

The species produces one generation every two years. Larvae feed on species of '' Viola''.

Etymology

The Latin

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

comes from the name Thor (ancient Germanic and Scandinavian mythology) - the god of thunder, storms and fertility, protecting gods and people from giants and monsters.

References

Boloria Butterflies of Europe Butterflies of Asia Butterflies described in 1803 {{Heliconiinae-stub