Bug FAQVidler's Alpine
Erebia vidleri · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Nymphalidae
The Vidler's alpine butterfly has a wingspan of about 34 to 45 mm. Its upper wings are dark brown with a jagged orange band that surrounds several black eyespots. It lives in moist, flowery alpine and sub-alpine meadows and slopes across western North America, and its caterpillars feed on grasses.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The dorsal side of both wings is brownish-black with a jagged orange band and black eyespots; the underside of the forewing matches this pattern, while the hindwing underside is grey with faint or missing eyespots.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
The wingspan ranges from 34 mm to 45 mm (about 1.3 to 1.8 in).
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
The larvae feed on various species of grasses (Poaceae).
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
It is found in western North America.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 3 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Washington, Colorado, Oregon.
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
What do the caterpillars eat?
The caterpillars feed on different grass species in the Poaceae family.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Nymphalidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erebia_vidleri
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-27 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-27.