Silky Ringlet

E. gorge Esp. (= aethiops minor Esp.) (37 d). The wings are somewhat narrower and less rounded than in gorgone the hindwing being distinctly angulate and in the female feebly dentate. The russet submarginal band of the forewing is rather broad and extends usually to the hindmargin. In the band there are costally 2 pupillated ocelli placed somewhat obliquely towards each other, and in the female united. In this sex, more rarely in the male, there is sometimes a small third ocellus towards the hindmargin or a black dot instead. The band of the hindwing is narrower and bears 3—4 white-centred ocelli. The forewing beneath is russet-brown, the fore and distal margins being black-brown, sometimes thinly dusted with whitish grey. The hindwing beneath black-brown, being marmorated with white-grey; the distal band is of a more or less light colour, bearing sometimes 3 black eye-dots, which have rarely white centres. The female is hardly different, being only lighter in colour, the underside of the hindwing grey, dusted with brown, with a dark middle band which is dentate on its distal side. Widely distributed in the higher Alps, but occurring only from the tree-line upwards. — ab. erynis Esp. (37 d) is a rarely occurring aberration in which the ocelli are either absent or are but vestigial. In the southern Central and Eastern Alps and in the Abruzzi — ab. triopes Spr. …

Named in the Classical tradition. Gorga in Greek mythology is the daughter of the king of Aetolia Oineus and Alpheus, the mother of Tydeus, one of the participants in the campaign of the "seven against Thebes."