Large Wall Brown, Pedregosa

Description:

40-50 mm wingspan. Male has the anverse bluff coloured with orange tinges. It has a big apical ocelle, several ocella on the hindwing and androconia. Reverse is grey with orange ocella. Female is slightly bigger and more golden coloured. L. Maera is quite similar to the Wall (Lasiommata megera). It is more common in mountain areas. Maera has a habit of settling in the dark shady areas on walls and rocks, presumably to escape the heat in the middle of the day. The nominate form of maera is easy to differentiate from megera as it is almost uniformly dark brown (not to mention maera usually being appreciably larger). However, the female of the maera southern form adrasta, predominant form in southern France and Iberia, has lighter markings and is more extensively orange, making differentiation from megera slightly more difficult. It flies from May to October, two generations, the second one smaller in size.

Habitat:

They usually are in rocky places, from the sea level up to 2000 meters. Spotted at an Oak and Holm oak forest in the mountains above 1000 meters high at Parque Natural de Lago de Sanabria

Notes:

Camera Model: NIKON D300. Exposure Time: 1/160 sec. f/6.3; ISO Speed Rating: 800. Exposure Bias: -1 EV. Focal Length: 300.0 mm. No flash fired