Lasiommata megera

• Subfamily: Satyrinae - Elymniini
• Wingspan: 35-50 mm
• Flight period: Apr - Sep
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Poaceae

Information

The Lasiommata megera also called Wall Brown is a common and widespread butterfly, of medium size, with a wingspan of 35 - 50 mm. Common butterfly throughout Europe, in Italy it is absent only from Sardinia. *

Butterfly characterized by an orange livery with brown spots and bands. The front wings show a large apical ocello with a central white point (pupillata), the posterior ones have four postdiscal ocelli, also with a central white point. The lower parts of the front wings repeat the same motifs as the upper page, while, on the back wings, they highlight a pattern of confused designs among the which is identified a delicate series of brown-rimmed ocelli. **

The dimorphism is characterized by the presence of a large dark band on the front wing of the male (androconial band). Trivoltolina with early hatches also in February until late October in northern Italy, until November in the south, overwinters as a larva. It prefers arid, stony and sunny places (country roads, forest edges, hedges and cultivated fields), it is encountered from the basal to the alpine level.

The egg is pale green in color and with a tenuous reticulate, almost spherical in shape but tends to be wider than high.
The caterpillar has a nocturnal life and is bluish green, with whitish longitudinal lines as well as with a dot always of the same color. From the larger spots arise some protuberances which at the base are of a washed-out orange color, and from the top of which some greyish bristles emerge.

The host plants are different, all belonging to Poaceae Graminaceae such as Dactilis glomerata (mazzolina grass), Poa pratensis (bluegrass), Hordeum spp. (wild barley), Brachypodium, Bromus, Dactylis, sp., Deschampsia, Festuca, Gramineae, Poa sp. etc.


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - European Fauna https://fauna-eu.org/