Friday, 17 December 2021

Alpine advent Day 17

The erebias are a truly alpine genus.  Only two species just about reach the very south and east of Belgium, where they are both scarce, whereas almost twenty species can be found in the area I visited.  They are all dark brown with varying amounts of orange and ocelli, with considerable subspecific and individual variation making their identification a nightmare.  The very first one I saw landed on my shoe and I only got a shot of the underside so I needed some expert help to id it as Large Ringlet/Erebia euryale.  I was happy, therefore, to later find another one with its wings open.