Shade butterfly - Lethe sicelis

Japanese: ヒカゲチョウ(日陰蝶) - ヒカゲチョウ（英語表記）Lethe sicelis

A medium-sized insect of the family Satyridae in the order Lepidoptera. It has a span of 5.2-6.3 cm. It is dark brown and has several eye-like patterns on the underside. It is named after the fact that it prefers to live in the shade of trees. It is endemic to Japan and is distributed from the central to northern parts of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. There are many individuals in the lowlands of the Kanto and Chubu regions. It lives in deciduous broadleaf forests accompanied by communities of bamboo grasses such as Medake, Pleurotus fasciatus, and Gokidake, and can sometimes be seen in bamboo grass plains in the beech zone where bamboo grasses such as Ibukizasa grow thickly. In the lowlands of central Honshu, it usually appears twice a year, with adults appearing from mid-May to late June and late July to mid-September, but sometimes a third batch of individuals emerges from late September to late October.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

鱗翅目ジャノメチョウ科の昆虫。中型で開張5.2～6.3cm。暗褐色で裏面に数個の眼状紋がある。木陰に好んで生息するのでこの名がある。日本固有種で，本州，四国，九州の中部以北に分布する。関東地方や中部地方の低地帯には個体数が多い。食草のメダケ，アズマネザサ，ゴキダケなどの群落(ササやぶ)を伴う落葉広葉樹林にすみ，ときにイブキザサなどが密生するブナ帯のササ原に見られることもある。本州中部の低地帯では通常年2回発生し，成虫は5月中旬～6月下旬，7月下旬～9月中旬ころ現れるが，9月下旬～10月下旬ころ第3回目の個体が羽化することがある。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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