White-veined Arctic (Oeneis bore Geyer)
Wing span: 1 7/16 - 1 7/8 inches (3.7 - 4.8 cm).
Identification: Wings are translucent, veins are usually white. Upperside is gray-brown with no eyespots. Underside is light brown; hindwing has a dark median band outlined in white.
Life history: To find females, males perch and patrol all day on grassy hillsides or swales. Females lay eggs on dead grass or sedge blades. Two years are required to complete development; the first winter is passed by first-stage caterpillars, the second winter by mature caterpillars.
Flight: One brood in late July.
Caterpillar hosts: Grasses or sedges.
Adult food: Occasionally flower nectar.
Habitat: Tundra, grassy alpine slopes, and subarctic bogs.
Range: Holarctic. In North America, high arctic tundra from Alaska east to Labrador. Isolated populations in the alpine Rocky Mountains south to southwest Colorado. Isolated population on Mt. Albert, Quebec.
