Speckled Wood Pararge aegeria (Linnaeus, 1758)

Recommended tours to watch this butterfly

Full-day birdwatching
Half-day birdwatching
Laurel Forest Tour
Note: when booking any of these tours please state your interest in butterflies.

Description

A brownish, medium-sized butterfly with orange-yellowish spots and outer margins scalloped. Its hind-wings uppersides have three to four eye-spots each surrounded by an orange ring while on the its marbled undersides those spots seems more like an arc of rusty brown eye-spots with yellow pupils (Haahtela et al, 2011).

Pararge aegeria Caterpillars

The caterpillar is yellowish-green with a longitudinal green stripe along the back and paler lines along the sides.

Host & Food Plants

“The larva feeds on several Gramineae, including Brachypodium sylvaticum” (Aguiar & Karsholt, 2006).

Habitat & behaviour

Woodlands are its prefered habitat where it normally looks for shady areas with dappled sunlight.

Distribution in Atlantic Islands of Macaronesia:

Occurs in Madeira and Porto Santo Islands (Aguiar & Karsholt, 2006)

Status:

Regional status according to Aguiar & Karsholt, 2008: Native to Madeira & Porto Santo
Regional status according to Wakeham-Dawson et al., 2001: Common resident
Status according to the European Red List of Butterflies, 2010: Least Concern