Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera) in Ireland

Donnóg an bhalla in Gaeilge. The Wall Brown, Lasiommata megera, is a declining coastal-grassland butterfly, one of the few Irish species listed Vulnerable on the Butterfly Conservation Ireland Red List.

Identify it in four steps

1. Upperside bright orange with fine dark chequering and a small black eyespot in the forewing tip.
2. Hindwing upperside carries a row of three or four small ringed black eyespots along the outer margin.
3. Underside hindwing pale grey-brown with a busy pattern of fine lines and a row of ringed eyespots; distinctive at rest.
4. Wingspan 44 to 50 mm; flight low and fast, often landing on bare ground, stone walls, or paths to bask.

Habitat in Ireland

The Wall Brown is a species of warm, dry, open coastal grassland: cliff tops, dune margins, rocky bays, and stone-wall verges. It needs bare ground for basking and a mixed sward of short and tussocky grass for larval development, structures increasingly lost inland.

Larvae feed on native fine-leaved grasses including Red Fescue (Festuca rubra), Wood False-brome, and Rough Meadow-grass (Poa trivialis). The Irish range has retreated to the coast over the past three decades, and inland records are now rare.

Where to see it

• the Copper Coast, County Waterford: cliff-top grassland and warm south-facing slopes remain a stronghold.
• Howth Head, County Dublin: coastal cliff path and dry grassland hold the species in most summers.
• Portrush and the Antrim Coast (Northern Ireland): coastal grassland and stone walls with basking spots.

Related species

• Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)
• Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus)
• Grayling (Hipparchia semele)