Gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus

Scientific Name: Pyronia tithonus. (Nymphalidae.)


English Name: Gatekeeper.


French Name: L'Amaryllis.

5 Key Characters:

• small to medium sized bright tawny orange (fauve) and brown butterfly.
• very gregarious -- where you see one you will almost certainly see several.
• the underside of the hind wing is mottled brown with an irregular pale band.
• one of the most abundant butterflies in France.
• fore wings have an eye spot with twin 'pupils', visible on both sides.
  

Lookalikes: At rest with wings folded they can easily be mistaken for Meadow Brown Maniola jurtina, but this species is bigger, the fore wing eye spot only has a single 'pupil' and there are no small indistinct eyespots on the hind wing.


Habitat: Woodland edges, hedgerows, heathy scrub, bocage, grasslands.


Flight Period: July-August-September.

Caterpillar: Light brown. Host plants Grasses Sheep Fescue Festuca ovina, Red Fescue F. rubra, Upright Brome Bromus erectus, Common Bent Agrostis capillaris, Brown Bent A. vinealis, Tor Grass Brachypodium pinnatum, Annual Meadow Grass Poa annua, Flattened Meadow Grass P. compressa, Common Meadow Grass P. pratensis and Sedge Spring Sedge Carex caryophyllea.

Status: Widespread and very abundant. This is a conspicuous and easy to see butterfly in the Touraine Loire Valley and Brenne.


Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Mating, female above left, male below right.

Mating, female above left, male below right.

Mating, female above left, male below right.

Gregariously nectaring on Bell Heather Erica cinerea on the forest edge.

Nectaring on Bell Heather Erica cinerea on the forest edge.

Male (note the 'sex mark', the dark slash across the middle of the fore wing, which emits pheromones.)

Male.

Male.

Male.

Male.

Nectaring on lavender.

Male.

Male.

Male.

Male.

Nectaring on lavender.

Nectaring on lavender (Common Carder Bumble Bee Bombus pascuorum on right).

Nectaring on lavender.

Mating.