The Lapland ringlet (''Erebia embla'') 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 the 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 restricted to sunny patches in very damp

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

and

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

forests and forested unmanaged

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

lands (and sometimes

moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

). 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 ...

feeds on various grasses and related plants (such as ''

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'' ...

'') and winters twice. A dry period in the habitat will result in the decline of the species.

Description in Seitz

''E. embla'' Thunb. (= ''dioxippe'' Hbn.) (37 h). Dark grey- brown above, the hindwing being feebly dentate and the fringes chequered brown and grey. The forewing bears 3 black eye-spots in brown yellow rings, the anterior one being largest and having mostly 2 white pupils, while the 2 posterior ones are shifted distad and are small, black, and without pupils. There are on the hindwing mostly 3—4 black ocelli which are bordered with brown -yellow, have no pupils and are sometimes absent. The forewing beneath somewhat darker than above, the apex and part of the distal margin being dusted with ashy grey The ocelli are not brown -yellow, but light with ochre -yellow ring, these more prominent than above. The hindwing beneath densely dusted with white-grey, bearing a more or less prominent, brown, distally somewhat dentate, median band, at the outside of which there is sometimes a larger, somewhat diffuse, grey costal spot and usually a small white central one. Before the distal margin there are some black dots, which are here and there narrowly edged with yellow. In Scandinavia , North Russia and Siberia. — ab. ''succulenta'' Alph. is lighter above than the nymotypical ''embla'', with more numerous and larger black eyespots, which moreover are broadly ringed with brown -yellow. In Kamtchatka and Mongolia; in Europe occasional specimen among the nymotypical form of ''embla''. — unicolor Spuler is the form occurring in Lapponia; it is uniformly black-brown, the ocelli of the forewing being absent except the upper 2, which are faintly edged with red or not at all. — Nothing is known of the larva. The form ''embla'' flies on the northern moors; ''succulenta'' according to Elwes in the woods, apparently nowhere in abundance.Eiffinger, G. in Seitz. A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, ''Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter'', 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren) There are three subspecies: *''E. e. embla'' Becklin, 1791 – Fennoscandia to East Siberia *''E. e. dissimulata'' Warren, 1931 – Altai and Sayan Mountains *''E. e. succulenta'' Alphéraky, 1897 – Russian Far East

References

*Tuzov et al. 1997 ''Guide to the Butterflies of Russia and Adjacent Territories''. Pensoft, Sofia Moscow.

External links

Butterflies of Norway
Erebia Butterflies of Europe Butterflies of Asia Butterflies described in 1791 {{Satyrini-stub