Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Duke of Burgundy, 1 by philomel

philomel wrote:
When I was up in the Pyrenees with my cousin the other day we came across a number of places where butterflies were gathering to collect the minerals in the damp earth.
Lots of different blues I'd never seen before and one that took a fancy to David and clung to his hand, refusing to budge.

It looked like a fritillary and I took several photos hoping to ID it.
When I looked at the photos I was amazed at the detail - which allowed me to see that it is a male Duke of Burgundy Fritillary. Despite the name not a fritillary at all, but the only species of the Metalmark family to occur in europe.
The males have very small front legs, appearing to have only 4 legs instead of 6!