page_title: Erebia tyndarus
section_title: Description and ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Erebia tyndarus / Description and ecology
caption_attribution_description: Erebia tyndarus
context_page_description: Erebia tyndarus, the Swiss brassy ringlet, is a European brush-footed butterfly species of the subfamily Satyrinae.
context_section_description: This mid-sized member of the genus Erebia has a wingspan around 35 mm. It has the blackish-brown upperwings typical of this genus. It also has the brassy sheen or green-gold lustre on the forewings (hence the common English name). These colours are caused by interference of the light on the wing scales.
  The upper forewings, and sometimes the upper hindwings also, bear an extensive coppery or orange patch, near the tip in the former and running parallel to the outer margin in the latter. In this patch there are black eyespots with a white dot in the middle, two immediately next to each other in the forewings and three or four more evenly spaced ones in the hindwings. These small spots do not touch each other. However, the hindwing spots may be reduced or entirely absent, particularly in the males which also have a darker coloration overall.
  The underwings are cryptically coloured in lighter greyish brown. A darker band arches between the forward and back margins of the hindwing, which has a prominent silvery sheen also found in closely related species of Erebia and conspicuous at a distance when these butterflies fly around in the sun. The reddish patches and the eyespots of the forewing also occur on the underwings, those of the hindwings usually do not.
  The adults fly only for a brief time during summer, mainly in July and August, feeding on nectar of the preferred yellow mountain flowers. The eggs are green, oval and show many longitudinal ribs. The caterpillars are grey-green to grey-brown, with dark longitudinal lines. The pupa is thick and brown coloured. The Swiss brassy ringlet is univoltine and its caterpillars feed on Poaceae grasses, especially sheep's fescue (Festuca ovina), matgrass (Nardus stricta), and various other fescues (Festuca) and meadow-grasses (Poa). They overwinter and pupate on the ground around May and June.
caption: Specimen from the Langham and Wheeler collection in the Ulster Museum. Note the silvery hindwing underside in the second row from the left. The left two rows are typical specimens; the right two rows are developmental variants (not subspecies).
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