Ringlet

Name: Ringlet

Scientific name: Aphantopus hyperantus

Category: Minibeasts

Nature Stars: 50

What are nature stars?

About: A medium sized butterfly, sooty brown all over. Wingspan measures about 5 cm. A common butterfly of woodland rides and edges, hedgerows and damp grassland, on the wing in the summer, May to September. Caterpillars feed on a variety of grasses.

How to identify: The best way to identify the 'brown' butterflies is by looking at the eye spots on their wings. The combination of the dark sooty brown wings, together with three eye spots on the underside of the fore wing and five eye spots on the unside of the rear wings is unique to the Ringlet.

Where: Found throughout the country, although absent from the north of Scotland.

Natural Superpowers

• Predator: 10
• Agility: 70
• Rarity: 40
• Cute factor: 40
• Traveller: 50

Fantastic fact: The Ringlet has expanded its range in recent years, as a result perhaps of climate change.

Photograph credit: Keith Warmington/www.warmies.co.uk