Sennitsa hero

Hero ( Greek mythology ) is the priestess of Aphrodite , the beloved of Leander, who crossed the Hellespont Channel every night to meet her.

The length of the front wing is 14-18 mm. Wings on top are dark brown or brown. The front wing is one-color or with one (more often) three eyes in an ocher rim; on the hind wing there is also one or two eyes. The lower eyes are larger, more distinct; on the hind wings in wide rims and they partly touch, a sinuous white strip passes in front of the eyes through the entire wing; the same is often expressed on the front wings, but it usually does not reach the anal vein.

The range stretches from Central France through Central Germany and further east, capturing the southern part of Siberia and temperate Asia , north to middle taiga , Sakhalin , South Kuril Islands , Japan ^[1] .

In Eastern Europe , a rare and local species that lives in a forest belt throughout Eastern Europe. In the west of this region is known from the territory of Poland and Slovakia . Further east through the Baltic countries (where it is absent in the coastal zone) and Belarus extended to the Kirov region and the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The habitat in the Carpathians is limited by the Tatras and the massif of Mount Goverla . The populations of the northern part of Ukraine and Podolia are in a very depressed state, and some are considered extinct. In central Russia, it is local, but in its habitats quite numerous, less common in the south of the forest zone (for example, in the swamp massifs of Chuvashia and to the south in the Penza region and in the Southern Urals in Bashkiria.

It inhabits peat bogs , upland marshes , Ledum pine forests, swampy pine forests, meadows adjacent to upland marshes, less often - in moist small-leaved forests. In the middle lane - oligotrophic swamps. On the southern border of the range are grass-sedge-mountainous mesotrophic communities. In the Ukrainian Carpathians it does not rise above 600 m above sea level.

Also inhabits forest-steppe and especially forest meadows, it is found along the edges of the river, in the valleys of streams and rivers, in grassy marshes , in the mountains to the upper border of the forest .

It develops in one generation, flying from late May to late July.

Butterflies have a leisurely slow flight at low altitude. Frightened, they do not fly far. Butterflies often perch on large leaves; they can often be found sitting on moist soil.

Butterflies feed on plants geranium forest and creeping buttercup .

The eggs are greenish, spherical, with unclear ribs, one per leaf. Females lay eggs one at a time on the leaves of cotton grass, fescue and some types of sedges.

The young caterpillar is yellowish-green, with two light stripes on each side. At the end are two whitish points. Caterpillars feed on the basis of fodder plants during the day and winter. . In older ages, green, sometimes with a whitish-pink hue on the back, with eight longitudinal yellowish lines. Fodder plants - cereals of the genera of bluegrass , reedweed , grassland , barley , barley , barleyworm , mouse barley and sedge .

Pellet on a fodder plant near the surface of the earth. Pupa is light green, in tubercles and dark spots. Veins are visible on wing primordia. On the sides of the abdominal segments are two rows of white dots.

In the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the species has the 3rd protection category (VU is a vulnerable taxon that is threatened with extinction in the long term, due to morphophysiological and / or behavioral characteristics that make them vulnerable to any, even minor, environmental changes) .

It is included in the Red Book of European Day Butterflies with the category SPEC3 - a species that lives both in Europe and beyond, but is endangered in Europe.

It is listed in the Red Book of Lithuania (2 category), Ukraine (1994) (2 category) and the Moscow region , Russia.