Food plants Recorded larval food plants include rough meadow grass (Poa trivialis), smooth meadow grass (Poa pratensis), Festuca species, bents (Agrostis species), and cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata), false brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), downy oat-grass and Helictotrichon pubescens. Less specific records of Poa, Bromus, Festuca, Milium, Brachypodium, Lolium, Avena, Alopecurus and Anthoxanthum. Adults feed on nectar from a wide spectrum of plants including Centaurea, Cirsium, Leontodon, Erica, Rubus, Heracleum, Eupatorium, (sensu lato) Origanum, Senecio, Scabiosa, Succisa, Ligustrum and Filipendula. Flight time The meadow brown is univoltine (one generation per year) and adults emerge over a long period (spring, summer and autumn). Some individuals have a short larval development time and produce late adults. This is genetically controlled. Habitat Because of the vast distribution habitats are hard to define but broadly are forest edge, forest-steppe and meadow steppe habitats up to 2,000 m above sea level, cultivated lands (meadow, forest plantations, parks and orchards). Subspecies Maniola jurtina hispulla (Esper, 1805) Portugal, Spain Maniola jurtina hyperhispulla (Thomson, 1973) Maltese Archipelago (Gozo) Maniola jurtina jurtina (Linnaeus, 1758) Europe (type locality Sweden), Spain Maniola jurtina janira Linnaeus, 1758 central Europe, Russia, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, middle and southern Urals, Kazakhstan, western Siberia (Kurgan) Maniola jurtina strandiana Oberthür, 1936 south Europe, Caucasus Major and Minor Crimea, Armenia, Azerbaijan Maniola jurtina persica LeCerf, 1912 (=? ghilanica LeCerf, 1913) Kopet-Dagh, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan Maniola jurtina phormia (Fruhstorfer, 1909) Slovenia References (2005): The role of eyespots as anti-predator mechanisms, principally demonstrated in the Lepidoptera. Biological Reviews 80(4): 573–588. (HTML abstract) Andrea Grill, Rob de Vos, Jan van Arkel, 2004 The shape of endemics: Notes on male and female genitalia in the genus Maniola (Schrank, 1801), (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae) Contributions to Zoology, 73 (4) (2004) online here External links Satyrinae of the Western Palearctic Maniola Butterflies of Africa Butterflies of Asia Butterflies of Europe Butterflies described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus