Erebia edda is a small butterfly found in the East Palearctic (Urals, Altai, Tuva, Siberia, Yakutia, Ussuri, Chukot Peninsula, Mongolia, Korea) that belongs to the browns family.
E. edda Men. (= intermedia Trybom) (35 c). Wings above coffee-brown, darker towards the base, distally with a russet-brown sheen. There is, before the apex, a large, rounded, reddish-yellow spot bearing a black ocellus composed of two and having two small white pupils. The hindwing is without markings. On the forewing beneath the yellow spot is larger and lighter than above, being more ochre -yellow, the double ocellus having bright white pupils. The hindwing is dark brown, thinly dusted with whitish, especially towards the costa. At the apex of the cell a rounded white spot, and before the distal margin 3 â 4 white dots. Antenna black-brown above, finely ringed with white and brown beneath, except the russet-brown club. The sexes are the same in markings and size, but the yellow spot of the forewing is paler in the female than in the male. Elwes found some specimens with accessory ocelli below the large subapical ocellus. â This species is the first of that group of Erebias which comes nearest to the preceding genus (Callerebia). It resembles Callerebia also in that it is not a really alpine insect, but occurs more in the hills. In East Siberia, in the Amur district, according to Graeser, in June and July, in swampy woods, but rare. Very local in the Altai, but abundant in some places, occurring already as low down as 4000 ft. It flutters with a weak flight among the grass, always settling on stones in dry brooks.
Erebia edda is mainly found across the eastern Palearctic, ranging from the northern Ural Mountains through the Altai region and Tuva, and extending across southern Siberia, covering areas such as Yakutai and the Amur region, to the Ussuri area and the western Chukot Peninsula in Russia. Its distribution also reaches into Mongolia and northern Korea. Despite this wide range, the species tends to occur in localized populations, with occasional areas of higher density in parts of Siberia, but generally remaining uncommon overall.
In the Altai Mountains, it has been recorded at elevations starting around 1,200 meters, where it may be relatively common, and extending up to about 1,800 meters in forested and tundra habitats. Further east, populations are found in the foothills of the subpolar Urals, as well as in the middle and southern taiga zones east of the Yenisei River, and even on the Shantar Islands.