Coenonympha glycerion

Chestnut heath
C. glycerion male - Nickelheim, Bavaria, Germany
Underside
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Coenonympha
Species:	C. glycerion
Binomial name
Coenonympha glycerion Borkhausen, 1788

Coenonympha glycerion, the chestnut heath, is a butterfly species belonging to the family Nymphalidae. It can be found in Eastern Europe and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and the Caucasus to North Korea.

Description in Seitz

C. iphis H. l. (= amyntas Btlr., mandane Ky.) (48 c). The disc of the forewing of the male on the upperside is washed with copper-brown, while that of the female is yellowish brown. This color may be darker (ab. subnigra) or lighter (ab. pallida). The hindwing is uniformly blackish brown. The underside of forewing entirely without ocelli, rarely with a small, pale, apical ocellus. The hindwing has a few scattered and reduced ocelli on the underside. Beyond the middle are 2 large irregular white sinuous patches, either separate or thinly connected, by which the nymotypical form is recognized at a glance. It is found throughout Central and a large part of Northern Europe, as well as in North and Central Asia; from England and Belgium to the Pacific Ocean, and from Finland and Livonia anaxagoras. to Dalmatia. In ab. anaxagoras Assmus, which occurs singly in Central Europe and is prevalent in Eastern Europe, the metallic line on the underside is absent, and the ocelli on the hindwing are reduced. — In iphicles Stgr. (= heroides Christ.) (48 c), on the other hand, the ocelli of the hindwing are very regular and distinct and appear on the upperside in the shape of brownish rings, resembling hero from Central Asia. carpathica Horm. is a smaller mountain form, the ocelli of whose hindwing are entirely or almost entirely obsolete; it is found in the Carpathian Mts. — mahometana Alph. (84 a) also has no ocelli or at most a few white dots in their place. Moreover, the upperside is uniformly soot-brown, while the entire underside is dusted with white; it is found in the Tian-shan. ab. iphina Stgr. is a Central-Asiatic form in which the ocelli on the underside are bordered with brown; it most probably does not occur anywhere as the only form of the species. The Larva is dull green with a blue-green head, a dark dorsal stripe, a pale lateral one, as well as a red anal fork; the spiracles yellowish red. Until May on grasses. The pupa is green with white-spotted abdomen and dark-edged wing-cases. The butterflies are on the wing in June and July, typically found on grassy roads in woods and in damp meadows. They are not rare, though large number are not often observed together. The very big-bodied females do not often rise more than 1 or 2 feet above the ground. When disturbed, they usually fly on only a few paces, following the direction of the road and settling again in the grass.

Flight period

The butterflies fly in one generation from June to August.

Food plants

The larvae feed on various grasses.

Sources

• Species info
• BioLib
• "Coenonympha Hübner, [1819]" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms