Scarce heath
Coenonympha hero (Linnaeus, 1761)
Status not recordedbutterflies and moths
The scarce heath (Coenonympha hero) is a species in the family Nymphalidae, order Lepidoptera.
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Quick facts about the scarce heath
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 2.8 cm – 3.2 cm
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Nectarivore
- Main food
- flowers
- Habitat
- forest, grassland, shrubland, wetland
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Active
- By day (diurnal)
- On the wing
- May to August
- Generations a year
- Two
- Larval food plants
- Poaceae family
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the scarce heath?
Where does the scarce heath live?
Not recorded
Is the scarce heath endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the scarce heath classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classInsecta
- orderLepidoptera
- familyNymphalidae
- genusCoenonympha
- SpeciesCoenonympha hero (Linnaeus, 1761)
Synonyms Coenonympha addenda, Coenonympha areteoides, Coenonympha bipuncta, Coenonympha coreana, Coenonympha defasciata, Coenonympha euryleuca, Coenonympha hero subsp. perseis, Coenonympha heromorpha, Coenonympha heros, Coenonympha herota, Coenonympha incompleta, Coenonympha kingana, Coenonympha latifasciata, Coenonympha marmorata, Coenonympha neoperseis, Coenonympha pallida, Coenonympha paradoxa, Coenonympha perseis, Coenonympha pilwonis, Coenonympha posticoexcessa, Coenonympha sibirica, Coenonympha splendens, Coenonympha stolida, Coenonympha supernumeraria, Coenonympha unipuncta, Papilio hero, Satyrus hero
Other names and names in other languages (27)
- okáč hnědýCzech
- HeroDanish
- Wald WiesenvögelchenGerman
- Vareskaera-aasasilmikEstonian
- ruskoniittyperhonenFinnish
- MélibéeFrench
- lápi szénanimfaHungarian
- 白帯姫日陰Japanese
- 도시처녀나비Korean
- Bësch-HeefalterLuxembourgish
- Rudakis satyriukasLithuanian
- heroringvingeNorwegian Bokmål
- ZilverstreephooibeestjeDutch
- heroringvengNorwegian Nynorsk
- Strzępotek heroPolish
- Сенница ГероRussian
- očkáň hnedýSlovak
- brun gräsfjärilSwedish
- Прочанок ГероUkrainian
- Brun perlemorrandøjeDanish
- HerorandøjeDanish
- Sortebrun dværgrandøjeDanish
- Braunes WiesenvögelchenGerman
- Wald-WiesenvögelchenGerman
- Fadet de l'ÉlymeFrench
- MoelibéeFrench
- シロオビヒメヒカゲJapanese
Relatives of the scarce heath
Other species in the same genus Coenonympha.

Small heath
Coenonympha pamphilus
Pearly heath
Coenonympha arcania
False Ringlet
Coenonympha oedippus
Large heath
Coenonympha tullia
Dusky heath
Coenonympha dorus
Corsican heath
Coenonympha corinna
CompareScarce heath vs Small heathScarce heath vs Pearly heathScarce heath vs False RingletScarce heath vs Large heath
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the scarce heath?
An adult scarce heath has a wingspan of 2.8 cm – 3.2 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
What does the scarce heath eat?
Its recorded main food is flowers.
What kind of animal is the scarce heath?
The scarce heath (Coenonympha hero) belongs to the family Nymphalidae in the order Lepidoptera.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Scarce heath (Coenonympha hero). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/scarce-heath
“Scarce heath (Coenonympha hero).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/scarce-heath.
@misc{scarce_heath_2026,
title = {Scarce heath (Coenonympha hero)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/scarce-heath},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}