Neonympha mitchellii | |
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Conservation status | |
Endangered
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
Family: | Nymphalidae |
Genus: | Neonympha |
Species: | N. mitchellii |
Subspecies: | N. m. mitchellii |
Trinomial name | |
Neonympha mitchellii mitchellii |
The Mitchell's Satyr (Neonympha mitchellii mitchellii) is a federally endangered species and it is illegal to collect.
Contents |
The wingspan is 35 to 45 mm, these wings are small, fragile and translucent. The underside of both wings have yellow-rimmed black submarginal eyespots.
There are only a few isolated populations left in the United States. These occur in southern Michigan, northern Indiana, Alabama, Virginia, and formerly New Jersey. They are found in fen habitats with tamarack, poison sumac, and tussock sedge.
A population found in North Carolina has been listed as a separate subspecies, the Saint Francis' satyr. In these states they stay in marshes and sedge swamps.
They only fly for about 10 days in late June, early July. They fly slowly with a bobbing sort of flight about a foot off of the ground. Females lay a single egg on grass, or multiple eggs on the underside of small forb seedlings, the fourth-instar hibernates.