Wingspan: 35–45 mm
Flight period: in one generation from May to September
Larval food plants: Species from the grass family (Poaceae)
The Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) is one of the most common butterflies in our country. We will recognize the male by the uniformly dark brown coloration of the upper sides of the wings, while the female has on the upper side of the forewings a larger brown-orange field. Both sexes have in the outer upper corner of the forewings a distinctly eye-like spot. Its forewings are orange-brown on the underside, and in the upper outer corner they have the characteristic black 'eye'. The underside of the hindwings is gray-brown, with a broad lighter band, on which there can be two yellow-edged black dashes. In the butterfly in the picture these 'eye spots' are missing, which is typical for females.
The Meadow Brown is not fussy about habitat when choosing living space. We can observe it on the edges of forests, in forest clearings and shrub areas, as well as on meadows and cultivated fields across Slovenia, where it occurs from the sea to the forest edge.
