Melanargia arge (Sulzer, 1776)

Host plants:
The larvae feed on Stipa pennata (and other Stipa), Festuca, Brachypodium ramosum and Ampelodesmos mauretanicus (e.g, near Rome).

Habitat:
Melanargia arge inhabits dry and hot steppe grasslands, rocky slopes, quarries and other, only gappily vegetated sites with the host plants between sea level and about 1400m.

Life cycle:
The imagines appear in spring between mid-April and June, according to altitude. The eggs are deposited singly near the ground within the grass tufts on dead blades etc. The freshly hatched L1 larva goes into diapause immediately and starts feeding on fresh grasses not until the first autumnal rainfalls. They grow over the winter (main growth in final two instars from February on) and pupate after 5 larval instars in late March or April in the tufts.

Remarks:
Melanargia arge is endemic to central and southern Italy (without the islands). A disputed occurrence on Sicily is unconfirmed.

Literature:
David Jutzeler (1993): Ökologie und erste Stände des Italienischen Schachbrettes Melanargia arge (Sulzer, 1776) (Lepidoptera : Satyridae) – Nota lepidopterologica – 16: 213 - 232.

Giandolfo Benedetto, Uberto Nardelli (1994): Melanargia pherusa Boisduval 1833: Biologie, Ökologie, Morphologie und Verbreitung im Vergleich mit Melanargia arge Sulzer 1776 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae, Satyrinae) – Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo – 15: 87 - 108.