Species Spotlight: Large Heath
Species spotlight:
Deep in the wet, moist bog, a strange object is stirring and suddenly... the pupa bursts open! And out emerges a beautiful Large Heath Butterfly ready for their glorious few days of life. Read on to find out more about these mystical creatures.
Names & Nicknames: Large Heath, Large Heath Butterfly, Common Ringlet
Size: Despite having large in the name, they really aren't so big. With a wingspan of 3.5-4cm they are not much longer than a paperclip.
Favourite Hangout: European Large Heaths know exactly what they want, and that is a nice bog. The wetter the better. Whereas the Large Heaths across the pond in North America are more varied, living in grasslands, tundras, bogs, woodlands, and clearings.
Favourite Snack: Baby Large Heaths, AKA caterpillars, love to munch on grass-like leaves. Some of their favourite snacks of choice include Hare's-tail Cottongrass, Common Cottongrass, and Jointed Rush. When they have grown up and spread their wings, they prefer some sweet nectar from flowers such as Cross-leaved Heath, Heather, Tormentil, and Clover instead.
Eating Habits: For the caterpillars, it's a fairly simple munching-with-strong-jaws situation. The adults, however, have some more specialist apparatus to get their favourite food, sweet nectar. They have a long, straw-like mouthpart called a proboscis that they stick into plants and lap up nectar with their long, thin tongues.
Toilet Humour: The adults are pretty modest, but as the caterpillars are eating a lot, they also naturally poop a lot. Caterpillar droppings are called ‘frass’ and they are usually small, dark coloured pellets.
Love Language: The females don’t travel too far and wide in their territories, preferring to let the males come to them! Males do the searching, and when they find a friendly female, she will usually fly into the air for the male to chase, before settling to get down to business on the ground. With a lifespan of only 3-4 days as adults, the females tend to be less picky than some other species; there really is no time to waste.
If you see them: Enjoy! And if you are in the UK, you can help out with conservation efforts by recording your sighting, snap a photo if you can, and then note the date and location, and you can submit your recording to the Butterfly Conservation Charity to give them a helping hand.
Red Flags: Whilst the North American Large Heaths are doing alright on the whole, the same can sadly not be said for their European brethren. The main threat is the loss of their favourite habitats, the boggiest of bogs. Mainly through them being drained for agriculture or altered by changing climates.
Epic Journeys: Large Heaths aren't known to move around too much. Once you've found a nice bog, then why would you leave!
Glow-up: A Large Heath's lifecycle usually takes 1 year. A female will lay their eggs at the base of a Hare’s-tail Cottongrass plant in July. These eggs will hatch into Green-striped Caterpillars who will munch away during the nights before hibernation through the winter and form a pupa in May. During the next few weeks, it will undergo a drastic change in its pupa before emerging as a fully fledged butterfly.
Facts: Those spots on its wings aren't just for looks. They actually act as fake eyes to help trick predators into thinking they are something much larger that should not be messed with!
Who are they in the friendship group: A real homebody who is loyal to their area.
Name:
Large Heath
Habitat:
Varies by region - preferring various grassy environments in North America, and bog environments in Europe
Diet:
Grass-like leaves for the caterpillars and nectar for the adults
Size:
35-41mm wingspan
Behaviour:
Nocturnal Caterpillars and diurnal adults - somewhat social
Predators:
Several predators, such as a range of birds, spiders, rodents, ants, wasps, reptiles, and amphibians.
Lifespan:
1-2 years for the full lifecycle, but the adults will typically only live for 3-4 days
Threats:
Habitat loss, habitat degradation, and loss of food sources
Conservation status:
Endangered
This desert rain frog is dead chuffed that you got to the bottom of this article. Who needs to know about the Large Heath? Share this article.
Share article
