''Pararge xiphia'', the Madeiran speckled wood, is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

of the family

Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species ha ...

. It is found on the island of

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

. It is considered as endangered due to competition from a related butterfly ''

Pararge aegeria The speckled wood (''Pararge aegeria'') is a butterfly found in and on the borders of woodland areas throughout much of the Palearctic realm. The species is subdivided into multiple subspecies, including ''Pararge aegeria aegeria'', ''Pararge aeg ...

''. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is . Adults are on the wing year round. The larvae feed on various plants, including ''

Brachypodium sylvaticum ''Brachypodium sylvaticum'', commonly known as false-brome, slender false brome or wood false brome, is a perennial grass native to Europe, Asia and Africa. Its native range includes most of Europe, northwestern Africa, Sudan and Eritrea, Wester ...

'', ''

Holcus lanatus ''Holcus lanatus'' is a perennial flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae. The specific epithet ' is Latin for 'woolly' which describes the plant's hairy texture. Common names include Yorkshire fog, tufted grass, and meadow soft grass. In Nor ...

'' and ''

Agrostis gigantea ''Agrostis gigantea'', known by its common names black bent and redtop, is a perennial grass of the ''Agrostis'' genus. It is native to Europe, but in the cooler areas of North America was widely used as a pasture grass until the 1940s. Although ...

''.

External links

Satyrinae of the Western Palearctic
* ttp://www.butterfly-guide.co.uk/species/satyrids/t5.htm Captain's European Butterfly Guidebr>"''Pararge'' Hübner, [1819]"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms''
Fauna Europaea
Elymniini Butterflies described in 1775 Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius Butterflies of Europe {{Elymniini-stub