Taiga Alpine

Erebia mancinus is resident throughout most of Canada and Alaska, and also found in Siberia and Scandinavia (Scott 1986). Habitats are spruce bogs to lower arctic tundra. There is one flight each year with the approximate flight time June 1-July 15. This species is biennial, flying odd years in some locations, even years in others (Scott 1986).

Adults sip mud and perhaps other sources (Scott, 1986).

Not of concern.

One flight per year, peaking in June.

Alaska to Labrador, south to the northwestern Great Lakes region and Canmore, Alberta, with an isolated population in the Cypress Hills of southwestern SK (Layberry et al. 1998, Bird et al. 1995).

"The upperside is dark chocolate-brown with a row of 4 to 5 subapical dots surrounded by a diffuse, rust-orange patch. The underside has a greyish frosting, with a faint, slightly darker median band and a white median spot; no hindwing eyespots. The only similar species in Alberta is the Common Alpine (E. epipsodea), but the latter always has hindwing eyespots. There are no described subspecies; the Taiga Alpine was thought to be the same species as E. disa until Layberry et al. (1998) provided evidence of separate species status. The type locality of mancinus is Rock Lake, near Jasper, AB."

Sparsely treed spruce bogs.

Undescribed. Adults fly among partially shaded, open spruce stands in spahgnum bogs, and are often found together with Jutta Arctics. The life cycle takes two years to complete, and adults may be present only in alternate years at a particular site (Klassen et al. 1989).

The larval hosts are unrecorded, but are probably grasses or sedges. Adults do not often nectar, and occasionally mud-puddle (Bird et al. 1995).

Erebia mancinus, the taiga alpine, is a member of the subfamily Satyrinae of the family Nymphalidae. It lives in subarctic North America from Labrador, northern Quebec, and northern Ontario, through the northern Prairie Provinces, northern British Columbia, and the interior of the Northwest Territories to Yukon and Alaska. It also ranges south in the mountains as far as Banff, Alberta. The habitat consists of black spruce-sphagnum bogs.

Adults are on wing in late June and July.

The larvae probably feed on sedges or grasses.