Wingspan: 35–45 mm
Flight period of butterflies: in one generation from May to June
Larval food plants: species from the grass family (fam. Poaceae)
Spring ringlet (Erebia medusa) is a medium-sized butterfly in the family of satyrs. Its wings are the color of dark chocolate. On the upper and lower sides it has along the outer edge of the wings a series of pronounced, circular black eye-spots with a broad orange border and a white center. The underside of the tips of its palps is light brown. It is distinguished from the somewhat smaller and much rarer, but coloration-wise extremely similar to the five-spot ringlet (Erebia oeme).
The spring ringlet is the first among all ringlets that live here to start flying. We can observe it from the lowlands to the high mountains. When choosing its habitat, it is not picky; suitable are damp clearings and clearings in deciduous forests and mixed forests heavily overgrown with ferns, especially it likes to fly along forest edges. Here it searches for flowering plants where it will feed on nectar, and a partner with whom they will create a new life – a new generation of butterflies and thus complete the life cycle.
