Mountain Ringlet

Mountain areas of Albania, Andorra, Austria, Great Britain, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Yugoslavia (Serbia, Kosovo, Voivodina, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia).

Great Britain. It is Britain's only true alpine species of butterfly. The larva feeds on moor matgrass near bogs and springs and the nectar-feeding adult visits bilberry, tormentil and heath bedstraw.

The pale cream eggs are laid singly, each female laying up to 70. The egg stage lasts two or three weeks. The larva is green with a double dorsal and a single lateral white or yellowish line. The third instar larvae hibernate in grass tussocks. They emerge in the spring and recommence feeding. Some larvae spend two years in this stage, the result of a late spring and short summer restricting growth. Recorded larval food plants are Aira praecox (Czechoslovakia, Spain), Deschampsia cespitosa (Czechoslovakia), Festuca ovina (Spain), Nardus stricta (British Isles) and Poa annua (Spain) The pupa is formed deep in grass tussocks, encased within a loose silk structure. The pupa stage lasts about three weeks. The flight period is extremely short, a few weeks only, June to August depending on altitude.