Brown, quiet and easy to overlook, the pine satyr sits in the grass of clearings in high mountain pine forest and flies for about three months of the year. The eyespots give it away: a big one at the tip of each forewing underneath, and six small ones on the hindwing. Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) puts its range in the mountains of southeastern Arizona, south into Mexico.
A name that changed
Older US checklists, and Wikipedia, use Paramacera allyni (Miller, 1972), the Arizona pine satyr. BAMONA now lists the butterfly under Paramacera xicaque, the pine satyr, and notes that P. allyni is now considered a subspecies, with allyni kept as an alternate scientific name. This page keeps the older name because it is the one the earlier checklist used and the one Wikipedia still carries. Searching for either name finds the same animal.
How to recognize it
BAMONA’s description is the most detailed available. The wings are brown. The upperside has dark borders and unringed eyespots, meaning spots without a pale ring around them, and the male has a patch of dark scales near the forewing cell. On the underside there are dark irregular lines, one large eyespot at the forewing tip and six small eyespots on the hindwing.
The wingspan runs 1 3/8 to 1 7/8 inches (3.5 to 4.8 cm); Wikipedia gives 35 to 48 mm, the same range in metric. This is a medium-small butterfly, and in flight it reads as a brown shape low over grass. The underside eyespots are what a photograph needs to show for a confident identification.
Range, habitat and season
Wikipedia puts the species from the mountains of southeastern Arizona into Mexico, and BAMONA says the same: southeastern Arizona mountains south into Mexico. The habitat in BAMONA is grassy openings in high-elevation pine forest. Both sources give one generation a year on the wing from June to August.
What is not known
The entries are short on life history, and honesty requires saying so. BAMONA lists the life history as not reported and the adult food as not reported. For the caterpillar host it offers only a possibility: creeping bentgrass, Agrostis stolonifera, in Arizona. The only specific plant named for this butterfly carries the word “possibly.”
No source reviewed here describes the egg, the caterpillar, the chrysalis or the adult diet. A reader looking for those details will not find them in the checklist material, and this page does not fill the gap with guesses from related species.
Status
BAMONA gives a global conservation rank of G4, defined in its text as apparently secure globally though it might be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery. Conservation is “not usually required” and no management needs are reported. BAMONA’s verified-sighting list held 23 entries when checked on 6 October 2026.
A gardener in its range
Southeastern Arizona’s pine-covered mountains are the setting, and a yard at lower elevation is not. Because the habitat is high-elevation pine forest with grassy openings, a gardener cannot recreate it with a flower bed, and no source describes any plant or practice that brings the pine satyr to a yard. Creeping bentgrass is the only host named, it is unconfirmed, and nothing suggests that planting it would draw the butterfly.
Visitors can help in a different way: a clear photograph of the underside, with the date and the mountain range, adds to a record that is currently thin. The butterfly garden guide covers plants for butterflies that do use gardens, and the rockslide checkerspot is another mountain species that is best met on a hike.
The most surprising thing on this sheet is how little there is on it: for a butterfly with its own name in two checklists, the egg, the caterpillar and the adult diet are all still marked “not reported.”
Common questions
What is the pine satyr butterfly?
It is a brown satyr (family Nymphalidae) with eyespots on its wings, found in the mountains of southeastern Arizona and south into Mexico. Wikipedia lists it as Paramacera allyni, the Arizona pine satyr or pine satyr, described by L. D. Miller in 1972.
How do you identify a pine satyr?
The wings are brown. The upperside has dark borders and unringed eyespots, and the male has a patch of dark scales near the forewing cell. The underside has dark irregular lines, a large eyespot at the tip of the forewing and six small eyespots on the hindwing. The wingspan is 1 3/8 to 1 7/8 inches (3.5 to 4.8 cm).
Is Paramacera allyni its own species?
That depends on the checklist. Wikipedia lists Paramacera allyni as a species. BAMONA now files the butterfly under Paramacera xicaque and notes that P. allyni is considered a subspecies. Older US checklists used the allyni name, so both appear in books and web pages.
When and where does it fly?
There is one flight, June to August. The habitat is grassy openings in high-elevation pine forest, and the range is the mountains of southeastern Arizona south into Mexico. The BAMONA record counts 23 verified sightings of the pine satyr as checked on 6 October 2026.
What do the caterpillars eat?
Not well documented. BAMONA gives a possible host of creeping bentgrass, Agrostis stolonifera, in Arizona, and lists the life history and adult food as not reported. Treat the host as unconfirmed.
Is it threatened, and can I help it in a garden?
BAMONA reports a global rank of G4 (apparently secure globally, though perhaps rare at the edges of its range), says conservation is not usually required and lists no management needs. No source describes a garden planting for it, and it lives in high pine forest.