(Linnaeus, 1761)
Pearly Heath
Description:
The Pearly Heath is found on dry, to moderately damp, grasslands and grassy places at the edges of woodland or scrub. The Pearly Heath is common in some areas. They are active butterflies that fly a lot, and are therefore easy to find. The males can often be found, perched in scrub, basking in the sun, from where they chase any females that pass by. In the evening, the butterflies gather together to roost communally in scrub or at wood margins. Meadow-grasses (Poa spp.), bents (Agrostis spp.), melicks (Melica spp.), fescues (Festuca spp.), and many other grasses are used as food plants, the preferred species differing between regions.
The female lays her eggs one by one, or in short rows, on blades of grass. When half-grown, the caterpillar hibernates in a tussock of grass, also pupating there later, deep down in the tussock.
This species has one brood a year.
Habitat:
Dry calcareous grasslands
Mixed woodland
Mesophile grasslands
Deciduous forests
Similar species:
Coenonympha darwiniana
Coenonympha gardetta
Coenonympha dorus