Meadow Brown Butterfly Mating | Slide Mouse

Widespread and common throughout britain and ireland.

Meadow brown butterfly mating. Ringlets have a number of prominent rings on the underwings not found on the meadow brown. The larval foodplants are a wide variety of grasses such as fescues meadow grass couch cock s foot and false broom. The meadow brown has less orange and essentially looks brown with a patch of orange on the wing. Meadow brown butterfly egg and life cycle.

The best way to identify the brown butterflies is by looking at the eyespots on their wings. If you can see even a small amount of orange in flight your butterfly is the meadow brown. The gatekeeper is generally smaller and more orange with a row of tiny white dots on the hind underwings. The meadow brown has a single brood with adults having an extended flight period.

The meadow brown is mainly brown with washed out orange patches on the forewings. The male showers the female with scent scales from his sex brands which act as an aphrodisiac that seduces the female and mating quickly follows. The meadow brown is the most abundant butterfly species in many habitats. The combination of its relatively large size orange patches on the forewings only one eyespot on the forewing and none at all on the hindwings is unique to the meadow.

After a couple of days the female starts to lay her batch of several hundred eggs. The meadow brown maniola jurtina is a butterfly found in the palearctic realm its range includes europe south of 62 n russia eastwards to the urals asia minor iraq iran north africa and the canary islands the larvae feed on grasses. If you get a very close view you can see that the gatekeeper has two white specks within the black eye spot while the meadow brown has only one. If you can see a white fringe to the wing as it flies it is a ringlet.

Adults fly even in dull weather when most other butterflies are inactive. Pieris napi green veined white klein geaderd witje maniola jurtina meadow brown bruin zandoogje aglais urticae. However from the end of august onwards the females who have aestivated during the hottest days of summer reappear and begin to lay their eggs in grassy areas. Three types of butterflies filmed while doing a mating ritual.

Gatekeepers have more orange and the wings look orange with a thick brown border. Mating takes places during these two months and then from july onwards the males gradually begin to disappear and the species is almost never seen. A mating pair of meadow brown butterfly maniola jurtina perched on a grass stem.