Lesser Spotted Fritillary

The wingspan is 15–23 mm. At first sight it is somewhat similar to Melitaea didyma but the black lunules before the margin united and the disc traversed by a strongly flexuose macular band, the hindwing with abundant, connected, black markings on the disc. The female with the ground-colour centrally more or less pale, especially on the forewing.

The larva of trivia is leaden grey, with bluish dots and dark dorsal stripe, the sides being striated with brownish, the soft spines whitish, the prolegs dotted with black. The pupa is very stout, anteriorly somewhat swollen, pearl-grey or dull whitish yellow, with small black dots, of which those on the wing-cases do not correspond to the spots of the wings. Some of the black spots, especially those on the abdomen, are ornamented with red or yellow.

It is found in the southern part of the Palearctic realm. In Europe it is sometimes called the desert fritillary, but this name also refers to the North African relative M. deserticola. It was first described in 1775 by entomologists Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller under the basionym Papilio trivia.