Cercyonis pegala

Cercyonis pegala is resident throughout most of the United States and southern Canada (Scott 1986). Habitats are moist grassy places from the Gulf Coast and Upper Sonoran zone to Canadian zone. Host plants are grasses of various species. Eggs are haphazardly laid on or near the host plant. Individuals overwinter as unfed first instar larvae. There is one flight each year with the approximate flight time mostly late June-early Sept; June 1-July 31 in coastal California (Scott 1986).

The upperside is an even, dark chocolate brown with two dark (often white-pupilled) forewing eyespots, with two or three hindwing underside spots (sometimes a complete row). The eyespots are better-developed on the underside, which has fine, dark striations and a vague median line. Females are larger and paler, often with a more pronounced pale patch surrounding the eyespots dorsally. There is no orange surrounding the dorsal forewing eyespots as in eyed Erebia species. C. oetus is similar, but pegala never has the upper forewing spot larger than the lower one, is slighlty larger overall, and often has blue scales in the forewing underside spots.  Subspecies ino, named from Calgary, reportedly describes all Alberta populations (Bird et al. 1995).

BC and Alberta south to CA and AZ, east across the continent to the east coast (Layberry et al. 1998).

occurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations

Canada

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: (>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)) US and S. Canada, except for the Pacific coast and some areas near the Gulf of Mexico.

Grasslands, meadows, pastures and roadsides throughout most of Alberta except the boreal.

Comments: A great variety of grassy situations are used in different parts of the range. However, "forest" is a borderline case and in general the butterflies would be in sparser parts or along roads or streams. Eastward (subspecies ALOPE and PEGALA) the species frequents open woodlands such as rocky ridge top oak woods with grassy outcrops (at least as far north as the Boston area), oak savannas, grassier variants of pine barrens and southward pine savannas; also many sorts of successional brushland and forest or woodland edges--not usually in deep woods nor far from trees. Northern and western subspecies including subspecies NEPHELE in the Northeast are more tolerant of or prefer open grasslands. In fact Layberry et al. (1998) consider the species not associated with woodlands in Canada but rather flowery meadows and roadsides, usually dry. NEPHELE also in wet sedge meadows or marshes.

Non-Migrant: No. All populations of this species make significant seasonal migrations.

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.

Larval hosts are unrecorded in western Canada, primarily reported to be grasses elsewhere, including wild oats (Avena fatua) (Layberry et al. 1998). Unlike most satyrines, adults (particularly females) are avid flower visitors and frequent thistles and alfalfa (Klassen et al. 1989, Bird et al. 1998).

Cercyonis pegala Fabricius: Nymphalidae, Lepidoptera
(observations are from Robertson, Graenicher, Reed, and Clinebell; this butterfly is the Common Wood Nymph)

Apiaceae: Eryngium yuccifolium sn (Rb), Heracleum maximum sn (Rb); Asteraceae: Cirsium vulgare sn (Gr), Liatris pycnostachya sn (Cl), Liatris spicata sn (Gr); Lamiaceae: Agastache foeniculum sn (Re), Monarda fistulosa sn (Cl); Rubiaceae: Cephalanthus occidentalis sn (Rb)

Note: For many non-migratory species, occurrences are roughly equivalent to populations.

Estimated Number of Occurrences: 81 to >300

10,000 to >1,000,000 individuals

Adults feed on flower nectar and rarely sap and dung. Males patrol for females (Scott, 1986).

The single yearly flight peaks in early July to early August.

Immature stages of western Canadian populations are undescribed. Guppy & Shepard (2001) illustrate a grown larva and pupa from south-central BC. Larvae overwinter in the first instar (Layberry et al. 1998). The most widespread and common satyrine in the province.

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 8
Specimens with Barcodes: 67
Species With Barcodes: 1

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.

There are 8 barcode sequences available from BOLD and GenBank.  Below is a sequence of the barcode region Cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI or COX1) from a member of the species.  See the BOLD taxonomy browser for more complete information about this specimen and other sequences.

Download FASTA File

Not of concern.

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Reasons: Widespread and abundant; no major threats.

Degree of Threat: D : Unthreatened throughout its range, communities may be threatened in minor portions of the range or degree of variation falls within natural variation

Biological Research Needs: Ssp. blanca & ssp. stephensi should be on "watch list".

Global Protection: Many to very many (13 to >40) occurrences appropriately protected and managed