Wall Brown
Encyclopedia
The Wall Brown, Lasiommata megera, is a butterfly
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 in the family Nymphalidae
Nymphalidae
The Nymphalidae is a family of about 5,000 species of butterflies which are distributed throughout most of the world. These are usually medium sized to large butterflies. Most species have a reduced pair of forelegs and many hold their colourful wings flat when resting. They are also called...

 (subfamily Satyrinae
Satyrinae
Satyrinae, the satyrines or satyrids, commonly known as the Browns, is a subfamily of the Nymphalidae . They were formerly considered a distinct family, Satyridae. This group contains nearly half of the known diversity of brush-footed butterflies...

). It is widespread in the Palearctic ecozone with a large variety of habitats and a number of generations a year.

Range

North Africa, Europe, Caucasus, Asia Minor, Middle East, West Siberia, North Tian-Shan, Dzhungarsky Alatau, Kazakhstan and Dzhungaria

Habitats

Habitats include forest edges and clearings, shrubby areas in ravines and river valleys and sparse woodlands. Also found in montane habitats up to 0–3000 m (0–9,842.5 ) a.s.l.)

The imago flies from April to October in two or three generations dependant on locality and altitude. The larva feeds on grasses
in the genera Festuca, Bromus
Bromus
Bromus is a large genus of the grass family . Estimates in the scientific literature of the number of species have ranged from 100 to 400, but plant taxonomists currently recognize around 160–170 species...

, Deschampsia
Deschampsia
Deschampsia is a genus of grasses in the family Poaceae, commonly known as hair grass or tussock grass. There are 30 to 40 species....

, Poa
Poa
Poa is a genus of about 500 species of grasses, native to the temperate regions of both hemispheres. Common names include meadow-grass , bluegrass , tussock , and speargrass. "Poa" is Greek for fodder...

, Dactylis
Dactylis
Dactylis is a genus of grasses in the subfamily Pooideae, native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. They are known in English as cock's-foot or cocksfoot grasses, also sometimes as orchard grasses.-Taxonomy:...

and Brachypodium
Brachypodium
Brachypodium is a genus of about 26 annual or perennial bunch grasses from the Northern Hemisphere. Flimsy upright stems form tussocks. Flowers appear in compact spike-like racemes with 5-25 flowers on each short-stalked spikelet in summer...

.

Subspecies

  • L. m. megera
  • L. m. vividissima
  • L. m. megerina (Herrich-Schäffer, 1856) - Transcaucasia
  • L. m. transcaspica (Staudinger, 1901) - Turkmenia
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