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.
| Coenonympha gardetta | |
|---|---|
| Male, Val da Fain, Switzerland | |
| Male, Wengen, Switzerland | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Coenonympha |
| Species: | C. gardetta |
| Binomial name | |
| Coenonympha gardetta | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The length of the forewings is 15–16 mm. Seitz treated it as a subspecies of C. arcana -satyrion Esp. (48 d); 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
edit- ↑ 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.