Melanargia pherusa (Boisduval, 1833)

Host plants:
The larvae feed on grasses like Brachypodium retusum, Festuca and others. In its habitat usually tall grasses of the species Ampelodesmos mauritanicus are common. The imagines are quite dependend on this type of vegetation, but are especially common where Ampelodesmos is interspersed with rock and patches of open soil and shows Brachypodium retusum and other grasses in its undergrowth. Ampelodesmos itself has very hard leaves which are difficult to eat. I don't know if it is also the same with newly sprouting leaves in winter. Thus it bhas still to be researched in the field if Ampelodesmos is an important (or even the most important`) host plant or only a structure element (wind shelter, protection against heat and grazing and thus a good habitat for other grasses).

Habitat:
Melanargia pherusa inhabits hot and sunny, most often only sparsely grazed slopes and garrigues with rocks and always the grass Ampelodesmos mauritanicus from just above sea level to about 1400m (mostly between 250m and 1000m).

Life cycle:
The butterflies occur between mid- or late April (rarely singly also even earlier) and late May, in the highest altitudes until late June. The eggs are deposited singly most often on dead parts of grasses. The hatched larvae immediately enter diapause and start feeding not until the first heavy rains in autumn. They develop until spring and are mature usually in March, in higher altitudes until early May. The young larvae are beige and may stay beige until pupation. But from L2 more and more larvae change to green after moults. There are sometimes multiple changes (beige-green-beige and maybe green again), at least in rearing.

Remarks:
Melanargia pherusa is close to M. occitanica and is endemic to Sicily, where it is mostly found in the northwestern quarter (from Trapani and Palermo across the Rocca Busambra to Monte Cammarata, there already isolated).