''Melitaea arcesia'', the blackvein fritillary, is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

of the family

Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species ha ...

. It is found from southern

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

and

Transbaikalia Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykal'ye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal at the south side of the eastern Si ...

to the

Amur region Amur Oblast () is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya rivers in the Russian Far East. The oblast borders Heilongjiang province of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the south. The administrat ...

, Mongolia and China.Russian Insects
/ref> The habitat consists of

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

-clad slopes. Adults are on wing from June to August.

Subspecies

*''Melitaea arcesia arcesia'' (Transbaikalia) *''Melitaea arcesia minor'' Elwes, 1899 (Altai) *''Melitaea arcesia chuana'' Grum-Grshimailo, 1893 *''Melitaea arcesia sikkimensis'' Moore, 1901 (India) *''Melitaea arcesia carmana'' Fruhstorfer, 1915 (Sayan) *''Melitaea arcesia rucephala'' Fruhstorfer, 1915 (Tian Shan Mountains)

References

Butterflies described in 1861 Melitaea Butterflies of Asia Taxa named by Otto Vasilievich Bremer {{Nymphalinae-stub