''Coenonympha leander'', the Russian heath, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

belonging to the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

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 found in northern

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

, southern

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. The habitat consists of warm grassy areas. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

32–40 mm. Adults have a uniform row of spots on the underside of the hindwings, as well as a reddish submarginal band.

Description in Seitz

''C. leander'' Esp. (48c). Upperside of the male almost like '' arcania'', forewing yellowish red edged with black;hindwing dark sooty brown, with the ocelli shining through faintly from the underside. Female rather paler, with a narrower margin on the forewing. Underside yellowish brown, hindwing tinged with greyish green, with 6 similar ocelli, the one situated at the anal angle being sometimes double. From Hungary through Bulgaria to the Black Sea, in the Crimea, the Ural and Volga districts, Asia Minor and Persia. — The form ''obscura'' Ruhl (48c) is smaller and washed with a dark colour, so that the upperside appears uniformly sooty brown; from Armenia. — ''iphioides'' Stgr. (48 c), from Castilia, is on the upperside similar to ''iphis'', but the ocelli on the underside of the hindwing are very large and complete, touching one another with their outer borders. The thinly black edge of the wing on the underside, which bears the pale fringes, contrasts strongly with a pale ochre-yellow marginal band, which is limited proximally by the metallic line. Caught near San Ildefonso. — In May and June. Adults are on wing from May to August in one generation per year. The larvae feed on ''

Poa ''Poa'' is a genus of about 570 species of grasses, native to the temperate regions of both hemispheres. Common names include meadow-grass (mainly in Europe and Asia), bluegrass (mainly in North America), tussock (some New Zealand species), a ...

'', ''

Melica ''Melica'' is a genus of perennial Poaceae, grasses known generally as melic or melic grass. They are found in most temperate regions of the world. Melic grasses are clumping to short-rhizome, rhizomatous Poaceae, grasses. They have culm (bot ...

'', ''

Anthoxanthum ''Anthoxanthum'' (Latinised Greek for "yellow blossom"), commonly known as hornworts, vernal grasses, or vernalgrasses, is a genus of plants in the grass family. The generic name means 'Yellow flower' in Botanical Latin, referring to the colour ...

'' and ''

Lolium ''Lolium'' is a genus of tufted grasses in the bluegrass subfamily (Pooideae). It is often called ryegrass, but this term is sometimes used to refer to grasses in other genera. They are characterized by bunch-like growth habits. ''Lolium'' is ...

'' species.

Subspecies

*''Coenonympha leander leander'' *''Coenonympha leander obscura'' Heyne, 1894 (Caucasus Minor, Armenian Highland, Talysh)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3064367 Coenonympha Butterflies of Europe Butterflies described in 1784