Great spangled fritillary butterfly Speyeria cybele

The great spangled fritillary is a common butterfly, and the most common species of fritillary in Ohio. It can be found in all of Ohio's eighty-eight counties, usually from April through October. It prefers to live in wide open areas such as pastures, prairies, and fields. It is a member of the Nymphalidae (brushfooted) family; the species has a wingspan of 3 to 3.9 inches (7.6 to 10 cm). In Ohio there are more than 150 species of butterflies. Twenty-seven different species of butterflies representing five families can be found in the Ohio Memory Online Scrapbook, including all seven species of butterflies that are listed as endangered in Ohio. Butterflies are a part of the order Lepidoptera (from the Greek words lepis, which means scale and pteron, which means wing). There are nearly 17,500 species of butterflies world-wide. Approximately 750 of these can be found in North America