Coenonympha gardetta

Coenonympha gardetta, the Alpine heath, is a butterfly species belonging to the family Nymphalidae. It can be in alpine meadows on heights of 800 to 2,900 from the Massif Central to Albania.

Alpine heath
C. gardetta male - Heutal (Val da Fain), Switzerland
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Coenonympha
Species:
C. gardetta
Binomial name
Coenonympha gardetta
(de Prunner, 1798)
Synonyms
  • Papilio satyrion Esper, 1805
  • Papilio philea (Hübner, 1800)
  • Papilio neoclides (Hübner, 1805)

The length of the forewings is 15–16 mm. Seitz treats it as a subspecies of C. arcana -satyrion Esp. (48 d) is a mountain form from the Carpathian Mts., which differs greatly from the nymotype: on the upperside the male is mouse-grey and the female brownish-grey, almost unicolorous; on the underside the white distal band is of even width and bears the very regular row of distinct ocelli exactly in its centre; from about 4000–7000 feet.[1]

Adults are on wing from June to September. There is one generation per year.

The larvae feed on various grasses.

References
  1. Seitz. A. in Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter, 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren)Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.


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