Scarce heath
The scarce heath is a small, dark butterfly. Under its back wings it has a row of little eye spots, each one in an orange ring, with a white line next to them. It is a loner and usually flies on its own.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It flies higher up in the air than its paler cousins.
It lives only in a few places, so even a lucky butterfly watcher sees just a few in one day.
Its caterpillar is pale green, the same colour as the grass it eats.
There is one new family of butterflies each year, flying from May to July.
Most asked questions about Scarce heath
?Where does the scarce heath live?
In northern and central Europe and across northern Asia all the way to Japan. It likes meadows with bushes and light woods.
?What does the scarce heath caterpillar eat?
Different grasses. The caterpillar is pale green, just like its food.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Coenonympha hero
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Coenonympha hero (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Kars Veling. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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