Description
The Freija Fritillary (Boloria freija) is a small butterfly with orange wings patterned with black spots and wavy lines, and a mottled underside featuring distinctive silver or cream markings, commonly found in bogs, tundra, and boreal forests across northern North America and Eurasia. I stomped through a bog for hours looking for this species and finally found it, and was sore for days.
Range
Bogs in the far northern counties.
Similar Species
Meadow Fritillary and Frigga Fritillary. Meadow has much less dark coloring near the body while Frigga has much more. Freija also has bold white lines on the hindwing below that neither Meadow nor Frigga have.
Host Plants
Bog Blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum), Willows (Salix spp.), especially dwarf species, Small Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), Bog Rosemary (Andromeda polifolia)
Flight
May