Queen of the heat, this butterfly is a professional charmer. It is no coincidence that its name derives from the mythical enchantress Circe, the one who tried to seduce Ulysses.
The Homeric hero managed not to be enchanted by the sorceress, but he probably would not have fought the allure of this butterfly's large wings draped in white and brown. How about you? This butterfly from the Nymphalidae family is one of the largest in Europe. It is a species widely spread from Western Europe through Asia Minor to the Himalayan slopes, found in warm and sunny environments, characterized by dry grassy formations. In central Italy it is a common but never abundant butterfly, that favors clearings in the driest woods and grasslands from sea level up to 1200 m, becoming rarer towards higher altitudes. As said, it is large in size (about 3.5-4 cm), the female is usually larger than the male. The butterflies of this species, and in particular the males, are usually found with their wings open to warm themselves in correspondence of sunspots on branches, trunks or on outcropping rocks. Here the males wait for the females to engage in an articulate courtship, they're truly romantic! The females are often found feeding on the flowers of various plants in the meadows or on the resins of the trunks in the woods. Butterflies resting with their wings closed hide perfectly from their predators. The species flies from mid-June to September, depending on altitude. A curiosity, the female does not lay her eggs directly on the plant, but releases them in flight, on the plants on which the caterpillar feeds.