Hipparchia wyssii (Christ, 1889)

Host plants:
The larvae feed on grasses. I recorded many larvae on Gran Canaria (Taxon tamadabae Owen & Smith, 1992) on a still undetermined tussock grass in mid-December 2016. Hyparrhenia hirta which grew also there (but higher-growing) did not host larvae.

Habitat:
Hipparchia wyssii inhabits especially rocky pine woodland in higher altitudes, but descends in barrancos or at rocky slopes sometimes to about 200m or even lower. In Gran Canaria, I found many larvae together with the locust Acrostira tamarani below the pine zone in 700m in a rocky bush-Euphorbia habitat at Mirador de Tasartico.

Life cycle:
The larvae hibernate, but usually feed throughout the winter, probably except in the highest altitudes. I found them in the antepenultimate and penultimate instar in 700m in mid-December 2016.
The larvae have been concealed at the base of the tussocks during daytime. In lower elevations flight time starts in March or April, in higher ones it lasts until summer (May to July) or even late summer (up to early September).

Remarks:
The superspecies Hipparchia wyssi is endemic to the Canaries (Spain) (misses in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote). Nowadays the taxa are often considered species of their own. This is justified by the partly quite large genetic distances and differences in wing colouration and egg morphology.
This is again a good example for the attempt of strict classification of smooth transitions: while some people prefer subspecies level, others work on species level. There are arguments for both point of views.
Taxa on the Canary Islands: Hipparchia tilosi Manil, 1984 (La Palma), Hipparchia gomera Higgins, 1967 (La Gomera), Hipparchia bacchus Higgins, 1967 (El Hierro), Hipparchia wyssii (Christ, 1889) (Tenerife) and H. tamadabae Owen & Smith, 1992 (Gran Canaria).