Knowledge of species’ ecological requirements is key for designing effective conservation management. In butterflies, the needs of larval stages are often the most specialised part of the life-cycle, but for many species information on this is lacking. The Mountain Ringlet Erebia epiphron is a cold-adapted butterfly found in alpine grasslands in mountainous regions of Europe. Efforts to devise conservation strategies for this climate change-threatened species are hampered due to its basic ecology being poorly understood. Here, we describe a study on the autecology of Mountain Ringlets at sites across its British distribution, focusing on the habitat preferences of egg-laying females as a proxy for larval preferences. Female Mountain Ringlets placed their eggs predominantly on Nardus stricta and Festuca ovina, but also on several other host plant species, suggesting larvae may be more broadly polyphagous than previously realised. Sites chosen for eggs had higher abundance of larval host plants, intermediate leaf litter cover, and lower cover of grass tussocks than random locations, as well as a shorter and sparser grass sward. Although the main host plant is ubiquitous in upland areas of Britain, our findings suggest that this butterfly’s egg and larval stages have specialised ecological requirements, requiring specific microhabitat features characterised by a narrow range of vegetation composition and structural characteristics. Many habitat associations are liable to be explicable as adaptations to ensure placement of eggs and larvae in sites within optimal (warm or buffered) microclimates. We tentatively suggest that the distribution of Mountain Ringlets in the landscape is thermally-constrained.

中文翻译：

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植被组成和结构是高山蝴蝶（Mountain Ringlet Erebia epiphron）产卵地点选择的重要预测因子

了解物种的生态需求是设计有效保护管理的关键。在蝴蝶中，幼虫阶段的需求通常是生命周期中最专业的部分，但对于许多物种来说，缺乏这方面的信息。Mountain Ringlet Erebia epiphron 是一种在欧洲山区的高山草原上发现的适应寒冷的蝴蝶。由于对其基本生态知之甚少，为这种受气候变化威胁的物种制定保护策略的努力受到阻碍。在这里，我们描述了一项关于山小环在其英国分布地点的自生学研究，重点关注产卵雌性的栖息地偏好，作为幼虫偏好的代表。雌性山地小环主要将卵产在 Nardus stricta 和 Festuca ovina 上，但在其他几种寄主植物物种上也是如此，这表明幼虫的多食性可能比以前意识到的更广泛。与随机位置相比，为卵选择的地点具有更高的幼虫寄主植物、中间的落叶覆盖率和更低的草丛覆盖率，以及更短和更稀疏的草丛。尽管主要寄主植物在英国的高地地区无处不在，但我们的研究结果表明，这种蝴蝶的卵和幼虫阶段具有特殊的生态要求，需要特定的微生境特征，其特征是植被组成和结构特征的范围很窄。许多栖息地协会可以解释为适应措施，以确保将卵和幼虫放置在最佳（温暖或缓冲）小气候内的地点。