Coenonympha gardetta

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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
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

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  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)  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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