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Coenonympha tullia

Large Heath

Field Notes

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Jura, France, July 2006

 

Jura, France, July 2006

 

Jura, France, July 2006

 

Jura, France, July 2006

 

Jura, France, July 2006

 

Jura, France, July 2006

 

Tatra Mountains, Slovakia, July 2001

 

Tatra Mountains, Slovakia, July 2001

Difficult place to settle on head of cotton grass?!

 

A widespread species across northern Europe. Oddly it is my first British species on my website where it is probably the butterfly I've seen the least on these islands. This is my only non-British discovery of this species. It was flying in a damp meadow along side C. glycerion glycerion which it resembles. However, size is a big give away - it's not called Large Heath for nothing.

It is a highly variable species as can be seen from the above two photos. Just about all features are subject to variation and across Europe there are a number of subspecies described. I think this site should be of the subspecies tiphon - the second photograph matches closely but the first one with its large eye spots rothliebii. For various technical and genetic reasons, if two subspecies occur together, they can't be subspecies. I'll let the taxonomists work that one out!

 

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