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Sticker of False ringlet
Bug card No. 1631 of 4,939

False ringlet

Coenonympha oedippus
Name means: “named after Oedipus, a king in old Greek stories”
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesPonds, rivers and shores6 legs

The false ringlet is a plain, dark sooty brown butterfly on top. Underneath it is rusty brown with a row of little eye spots on its back wings. It hops along in its flight over wet meadows.

Lives in
Parts of Europe and Asia, as far as Japan, in damp meadows and swamps
Top speed
about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Butterflies cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups sip sweet drinks like other butterflies. The caterpillar eats reeds, and maybe iris too.
For real!Photo of False ringlet
Picture by Kars Veling. CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The caterpillar is pale green with stripes, and it lives from July until the next May, right through the winter.

2

It is endangered and has already disappeared from Germany, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

3

It likes damp meadows that sometimes flood, and there it sits on little stony hills.

4

The ones living in Japan are bigger and have larger eye spots.

you asked

Most asked questions about False ringlet

?Is the false ringlet rare?

Yes. It is endangered and has vanished from some countries, such as Germany and Bulgaria.

?Where does the false ringlet live?

In damp meadows and swamps in parts of Europe and Asia, as far east as Japan.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Coenonympha oedippus
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Coenonympha oedippus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Kars Veling. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Ponds, rivers and shores

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