Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus) in Ireland

Fáinneog in Gaeilge. The Ringlet, Aphantopus hyperantus, is a damp-grassland brown that peaks in July and is one of the easiest Irish butterflies to identify at rest, thanks to a bold ring of underside eyespots.

Identify it in four steps

1. Upperside near-black in fresh individuals, fading to warm brown with wear; a thin white fringe outlines both wings.
2. Underside hindwing carries a clean row of five ringed eyespots (yellow ring, black centre, white pupil) that no other Irish brown shows in the same arrangement.
3. Wingspan 48 to 52 mm; flight is a bouncing, low glide through tall grass, often in dull weather that grounds other browns.
4. Where a suspected Meadow Brown lands with wings closed and shows a full ring of eyespots, it is a Ringlet.

Habitat in Ireland

The Ringlet favours damp, tall, ungrazed grassland: woodland rides, hedge banks, lakeshore fringes, rushy field margins, and unmanaged verges. Unlike the Meadow Brown, it depends on grasses that stay standing through midsummer and rarely appears in tightly grazed pasture.

Larvae feed at night on native grasses including Cock’s-foot (Dactylis glomerata) and Rough Meadow-grass (Poa trivialis). The species has expanded northward in Ireland since the 1990s in step with milder winters, and now reaches sites in Donegal that historic atlases left blank.

Where to see it

• Portumna Forest Park, County Galway: shaded rides and lakeshore rough grass hold high July densities.
• Lough Boora Discovery Park, County Offaly: cutaway peatland edge with tall grass supports strong colonies.
• Glenveagh National Park, County Donegal: recent northern-Irish records at valley-floor rushy grassland.

Related species

• Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)
• Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
• Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus)