(Prunner, 1798)
Sooty Ringlet
Description:
The Sooty Ringlet is a butterfly of mountainous areas with everlasting snows and glaciers. It occurs high up, on steep screes and moraines, breeding on patches with a mosaic of sparse vegetation and small stones.
The female deposits the pale-coloured eggs on mostly light-coloured stones. Once the caterpillar has emerged from the egg, it sometimes has to travel some distance before finding one of the grasses it uses as a food plant. Caterpillars have been found on the fescues Festuca halleri and F. quadriflora, as well as on Annual Meadow-grass (Poa annua). The caterpillars take two or possibly three years to develop.
Habitat:
Alpine grasslands
Screes
Inland cliffs and exposed rocks
Similar species:
Erebia lefebvrei
Erebia melas