The Arctic ringlet or Disa alpine (''Erebia disa'') is a member of the subfamily

Satyrinae The Satyrinae, the satyrines or satyrids, commonly known as the browns, are a subfamily of the Nymphalidae (brush-footed butterflies). They were formerly considered a distinct family, Satyridae. This group contains nearly half of the known divers ...

of family

Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a red ...

. It is associated with wet

muskeg Muskeg (Ojibwe: mashkiig; cr, maskīk; french: fondrière de mousse, lit. ''moss bog'') is a peat-forming ecosystem found in several northern climates, most commonly in Arctic and boreal areas. Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bog or ...

and bogs in subarctic and Arctic climates, and is often found near the

tree-line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...

. The larva overwinters twice before undergoing

metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...

into an adult. It is found in Arctic Europe, Arctic European Russia (Kanin Peninsula), Sajan, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Yablonoi and Arctic North America.

Description

The upperside of the wings are dark brown with a fine black and white hashed line along the hind margins. The forewing has a red or orange strip fairly near the edge on which are four black blotches with white-centred eyespots. The hindwing is plain brown. The underside of the forewing is similar to the upperside while the underside of the hindwing is greyish brown with a broad dark brown lateral band and a hashed black and white margin. The wingspan is . Species with which this butterfly could be confused include the

Lapland ringlet The Lapland ringlet (''Erebia embla'') is a member of the subfamily Satyrinae of the family Nymphalidae. It is restricted to sunny patches in very damp spruce and pine forests and forested unmanaged peatlands (and sometimes moors). The larva feed ...

(''Erebia embla'') and the

Arran brown ''Erebia ligea'', the Arran brown, is a member of the subfamily Satyrinae of the family Nymphalidae. This brown is widespread in south-eastern and northern Europe. It prefers mixed woodlands at low altitudes. It is rarely seen in open areas. Th ...

(''Erebia ligea''), but these both have white markings on the undersides of their hindwings.

Distribution and habitat

The Arctic ringlet has a

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical region ...

distribution. It is found in Arctic Europe, Arctic European Russia (Kanin Peninsula), Sajan, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Yablonoi and Arctic North America. Its typical habitat is bogs and damp forests.

Life cycle

The food plants of the

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e are various species of

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

es (Poaceae),

cottongrass ''Eriophorum'' (cottongrass, cotton-grass or cottonsedge) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cyperaceae, the sedge family. They are found throughout the arctic, subarctic, and temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere in acid bog h ...

es (''Eriophorum'') and sedges (''

Carex ''Carex'' is a vast genus of more than 2,000 species of grass-like plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges (or seg, in older books). Other members of the family Cyperaceae are also called sedges, however those of genus ''Carex'' ...

''). The larva overwinters twice as a caterpillar and the adult generally flies in July.

References

*Bolotov I.N. 2012. The Fauna and Ecology of Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Rhopalocera) of the Kanin Peninsula and Kolguev Island. - ''Entomological Review'' 92(3): 296-304. DOI 10.1134/S0013873812030062

External links

CBIF
Disa Alpine Canadian site {{Taxonbar, from=Q1823106 Erebia Insects of the Arctic Butterflies of Europe Butterflies of Asia Butterflies of North America Butterflies described in 1791 Taxa named by Carl Peter Thunberg