Dusky Meadow Brown
CR

Dusky Meadow Brown

Hyponephele lycaon

UnknownLCEULCEU

Photo: iNaturalist: (c) Roberto Sindaco, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Roberto Sindaco

Overview

Hyponephele lycaon, the dusky meadow brown, is a butterfly species belonging to the family Nymphalidae. It is broadly distributed in the temperate zone of the Palearctic from Portugal in the west to the Russian Far East in the east.

The Dusky Meadow Brown butterfly faces severe population declines primarily due to habitat loss and degradation of its specialized grassland ecosystems. Agricultural intensification, urbanization, and changes in land management practices have fragmented and destroyed the species' remaining habitat patches. Climate change may further exacerbate these pressures by altering the composition and quality of grassland communities that support this butterfly's lifecycle.

Threat summary

Other threatened species in Nymphalidae

Scarce FritillaryCR

Scarce Fritillary

Euphydryas maturna

Unknown
EN

Altopedaliodes albonotata

Unknown
Two-tailed PashaVU

Two-tailed Pasha

Charaxes jasius

Unknown
False GraylingVU

False Grayling

Arethusana arethusa

Unknown

Frequently asked questions

Why is Dusky Meadow Brown classified as Critically Endangered?
Dusky Meadow Brown is classified as Critically Endangered — facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild — because population sizes are very small, declining sharply, or restricted to a tiny range. The Dusky Meadow Brown butterfly faces severe population declines primarily due to habitat loss and degradation of its specialized grassland ecosystems. Agricultural intensification, urbanization, and changes in land management practices have fragmented and destroyed the species' remaining habitat patches. Climate change may further exacerbate these pressures by altering the composition and quality of grassland communities that support this butterfly's lifecycle.
Where does Dusky Meadow Brown live?
Dusky Meadow Brown occurs in across multiple regions. Country-level distribution data is sourced from the IUCN Red List and cross-referenced with GBIF occurrences.
What are the main threats to Dusky Meadow Brown?
The main threats to Dusky Meadow Brown are ai-1, ai-2, ai-3, and ai-4. The full IUCN-classified threat record for this species is detailed on the species page.

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