''Erebia ligea'', the Arran brown, 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 ...

. This brown is widespread in south-eastern and northern Europe. It prefers mixed woodlands at low altitudes. It is rarely seen in open areas. This species was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', and the type locality is Sweden.

Description

The Arran brown is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of between . Females tend to be a little larger than males. The upperside of both the forewings and hindwings is dark greyish brown with a reddish-orange strip near the margin along which runs a series of black spots. Many of the spots are small but some have white centres. The underside of the forewing is dark brown with a reddish strip with black, white-centred eyespots near the outer edge. The underside of the hindwing is brown, edged with a row of more or less distinct dark coloured eyespots. The basal side of these is close to the centre of wing and there are one or two patches of white. The basal part of the hindwing of the female is a darker brown than the rest of the wing. This butterfly can be distinguished from the rather similar

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

Arctic ringlet The Arctic ringlet or Disa alpine (''Erebia disa'') is a member of the subfamily Satyrinae of family Nymphalidae. It is associated with wet muskeg and bogs in subarctic and Arctic climates, and is often found near the tree-line. The larva overwin ...

(''Erebia disa'') by the fact that it has white blotches on the under surfaces of the hindwing and those butterflies do not. It can also be distinguished from the Arctic ringlet by the fact that it always has eyespots on its hindwings while the upperside of the Arctic ringlet's wings are plain brown. Another very similar species is the

dewy ringlet ''Erebia pandrose'', the dewy ringlet, is a member of the subfamily Satyrinae of the family Nymphalidae . It is found from the Arctic areas of northern Europe, the Pyrenees, Alps, the Apennine Mountains, the Carpathian Mountains, Kola Peninsula ...

, but that has a more rusty red forewing and the red strip along the underside of the wings is not continuous. It is questionable whether this butterfly occurs in the British Isles but historical collections of the

Scotch argus The Scotch argus (''Erebia aethiops'') is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. In spite of its English name ''argus'', it is not a close relation of the brown argus nor the Aricia artaxerxes, northern brown argus. Taxonomy Subspecies include: ...

(''Erebia aethiops'') contain some specimens of Arran brown among the very similar specimens of Scottish argus. The original record is from the

Isle of Arran The Isle of Arran (; sco, Isle o Arran; gd, Eilean Arainn) or simply Arran is an island off the west coast of Scotland. It is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde and the seventh-largest Scottish island, at . Historically part of Butesh ...

, in the Clyde Isles in Scotland, in 1803, and it is from this that the butterfly gets its English name.

Distribution and habitat

The Arran brown is native to northern and south-eastern Europe. It is found in July and August on grassland, open woodland, forest clearings and the margins of forests. Satyrine2NorwayUp.jpg, Specimen from Oslo Weißbindiger Mohrenfalter (Erebia ligea), Hohlenwiesbach, Rocherath, Ostbelgien (20070864516).jpg, Underside view showing the typical white streak Mating business I (9307442215).jpg, Mating pair Ligea.jpg, Museum drawer of ''Erebia ligea'' ( Langham and

Wheeler Wheeler may refer to: Places United States * Wheeler, Alabama, an unincorporated community * Wheeler, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Wheeler, California, an unincorporated community * Wheeler, Illinois, a village * Wheeler, Indiana, a ...

collection -

Ulster Museum The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasure ...

)

Life cycle

Females lay their eggs on grasses and sedges. In Finland the larvae take two years to develop and overwinter twice as caterpillars. In that country the numbers fluctuate and it is much more numerous in odd-numbered years.

References

{{Taxonbar , from=Q937995 Erebia Butterflies of Europe Butterflies described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus