(Scopoli, 1763)
Dryad
Description:
The Dryad inhabits grassy, rather rough vegetation, often located at the edge of woodland or scrub, and mostly quite damp.
The food plants are relatively broad-leaved, nutritious grasses, such as Purple Moor-grass (Molinea caerulea), small-reeds (Calamagrostis spp.), and bromes (Bromus spp.).
The female drops her eggs in flight into the grass. The tiny caterpillars emerge and, without feeding, enter a period of inactivity during the summer months. In the autumn, they begin to feed, hibernating in the first or second larval instar. The caterpillars make a little hollow in the ground in which to pupate, but do not spin a cocoon.
The Dryad is single-brooded.
Habitat:
Dry calcareous grasslands
Mesophile grasslands
Deciduous forests
Similar species:
Satyrus actaea
Satyrus ferula