[289] Pyronia Tithonus, Gatekeeper
Introduction
Pyronia Tithonus, the Gatekeeper, is our last species of the ‘browns’ but it’s the brightest, often tending to an orange colour. It is also known as Hedge Brown.
Other geographically separate species of Pyronia are also called Gatekeepers or Hedge Brown.
Taxonomy
Kingdom – Animals
Phylum – Arthropods
Class – Insects
Order – Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Family – Nymphalidae
Subfamily – Satyrinae (Browns)
Tribe – Satyrini
Subtribe – Maniolina (Includes [222] Meadow Brown and [028] Ringlet)
Genus – Pyronia
Scientific Name – Pyronia tithonus
Name
The name Gatekeeper comes from its habit of patrolling hedges, so it was often seen near gates.
Pyro- is a Latin/Greek root meaning fire, presumably from the colours.
In Greek mythology Tithonus was a brother of Priam, the future king of Troy. He was kidnapped by Eos, the goddess of the dawn. She asked Zeus to grant him immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth. As he aged Eos transformed him into a cicada. Tithonus probably comes from Titone from tito-one, ‘queen of the day,’ another name of Eos. The link, if any, to this butterfly is very tenuous.
Description
The Gatekeeper is another of the brown butterflies, somewhat similar to those we have seen. It usually rests with its wings open and is a much brighter colour. In sunlight in can appear orange or orange-red.
The key defining feature is the dark eye spot on its wings, which always has two white dots, unlike the other browns with a single dot.
The male has a dark band across his upper fore-wing.
Females are similar apart from this band. They may have small white dots on the hindwing.
The underwings are duller.
As for all the Nymphalidae butterflies, the Gatekeeper only has four functioning legs. I have searched, without success, through my pictures for traces of the front legs. They are too small to be significant.
The life-cycle is one year, mostly spent in the larval stage feeding on a range of grasses. Adults feed on nectar from several plants including [082] Thistles, [187] Ragwort, [208] Privet, [138] Hemp Agrimony and [343] Clover.
Habitat
Pyronia Tithonus is common and widespread over England and Wales. Its northern limit is gradually moving further north with warming climates.
Its natural range includes most of Europe and parts of Northern Africa and south-west Asia.
It tends to live in colonies in grassland.
The Species of Britain 