Neonympha mitchellii

Neonympha mitchellii
Conservation status
Endangered
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

Common names

Mitchell's Satyr, Mitchell's Marsh Satyr

The Mitchell's Satyr (Neonympha mitchellii mitchellii) is a federally endangered species and it is illegal to collect.

Description

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.

Range & Habitat

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.

Life cycle

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.

Larval foods

• Sedge
• Bulrush^{[disambiguation needed ]}

References

• "Neonympha". http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/satyrinae/neonympha/index.html#mitchellii. Retrieved 2008-11-20. 
• "Species Neonympha mitchellii - Mitchell's Satyr - BugGuide.net". http://bugguide.net/node/view/13543. Retrieved 2008-11-20. 
• "Species Detail Butterflies and Moths of North America". http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1850. Retrieved 2008-11-20. 
• "New findings of Mitchell’s Satyr (Neonympha mitchellii) in Alabama by Vitaly Charny