I saw my first Mountain Ringlet butterfly of the year at Ben Lawers on Tuesday 28 June 2011 so they will soon be out in numbers on the Scottish mountains where this butterfly occurs.
This butterfly is significantly under-recorded in Scotland so it would be great if anyone who is going to be on holiday in the Scottish highlands during July could look out for Mountain Ringlet whilst mountain walking. Late June to July is the flight period of Mountain Ringlet.
The Mountain Ringlet (Erebia epiphron) is a rare UK butterfly being confined to montane habitat between 350 & 900 m in the central highlands from Ben Lomond in the south to Creag Meagaidh /Glen Roy in the north and from Glasdrum/Glencoe, Argyll in the west to Schiehallion in central Perthshire in the east with two known colonies further east in the Cairngorms National Park: Glen Doll & Glen Feshie. This distribution amounts to just 52 10 km squares in Scotland which makes it much rarer than the iconic birds of the Scottish mountains such as the Ptarmigan & the Golden Eagle.
You can read about Mountain Ringlet surveys and learn about its distinctive habitat - herb-rich Nardus grassland on the following link:
http://www.southwestscotland-butterflie ... 2010.shtml