Erebia euryale (Esper, 1805)

Host plants:
The caterpillars live on various grasses of lighter woods, forest edges and bushy mountain slopes, so on Sesleria varia, Brachypodium sylvaticum, Carex sp. and
others.

Habitat:
Erebia euryale inhabits open mountain forests (forest gap systems) from 800m above sea level up to the green alder-belt. Occasionally it is also found in dwarf shrub heath and at more northerly exposed, open slopes.

Life cycle:
The development is apparently biennial (Sonderegger 2005). First, the caterpillar overwinters in the egg, then the caterpillar in penultimate instar. The adults fly from early July to mid-or occasionally even in late August.

Endangerment: regionally endangered or decreasing

Endangerment factors:
In lower altitudes, Erebia euryale is threatened by intensive afforestation, dark forest management and eutrophication. In the higher elevations, Erebia euryale is mostly not endangered.

Remarks:
Erebia euryale is in the Alps in the mountain forest belt one of the most common Erebia, also in Bavarian Alps and Bavarian Forest.

The distribution ranges from Northern Spain (Cantabrian Mountains, Pyrenees) across the French Massif Central and the Alps to the Carpathians and large areas of the Balkans. In addition, the Urals and some other eastern regions are inhabited.