Bug FAQTheano Alpine
Erebia pawloskii · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Nymphalidae
Also called: Yellow Dotted Alpine
The yellow-dotted alpine (Erebia pawloskii) is a satyrine butterfly with a wingspan of about 29 to 38 mm. It lives in grassy wet-tundra and bogs of northern British Columbia, Yukon, Alaska and parts of Siberia and Mongolia, and the adults fly from July to mid-August. Its caterpillars eat sedges of the Carex genus.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Erebia pawloskii, called the yellow-dotted alpine, belongs to the Satyrinae subfamily of Nymphalidae.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
The butterfly’s wingspan ranges from 29 to 38 mm.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
The larvae feed on species of the sedge genus Carex.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Adults are on the wing from July through mid-August.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
The flight period for adults is July to mid-August.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
In North America it is found in northern British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
The accepted spelling is Erebia pawloskii, not Erebia pawlowskii.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 4 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
Where does this butterfly live?
It lives in grassy wet-tundra and bogs of northern British Columbia, Yukon, Alaska and parts of Siberia and Mongolia.
Source: Wikipedia
Is there another name I should know for this species?
The correct scientific name is Erebia pawloskii; older texts may use Erebia pawlowskii.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Nymphalidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erebia_pawloskii
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-24.