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LEPIDOPTERA

Colias poliographus poliographus Motschulsky, I860

Colias poliographus

• TYPE LOCALITY. "Khokodody" [Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan].
• RANGE . From the mountains of Central Asia across S. Siberia and N. China to N. Korea, Japan and Sakhalin.
• DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. Besides the nominate subspecies, which is distributed in the Amur and Ussuri regions to Sakhalin, the following forms have been described: ssp. tomarias Bryk, 1942 (= tokotana Bryk, 1942) - the Kuriles; ssp. naukratis Fruhstorfer, 1910 - the Altai, S. Siberia, Transbaikalia; ssp. inversa Alpheraky, 1881 - Tian-Shan; ssp. alta Staudinger, 1886 - Tian-Shan, Ghissar, S. Ghissar, Darvaz, Alai, the Pamirs.
•TAXONOMIC NOTES. According to the latest revision (Reissinger, 1989), С. alta represents a distinct species; in our opinion, its taxonomic status and distribution are still in need of precision as its relations with C. hyale, C. poliographus and C. sareptensis are not clear.
• HABITAT AND BIOLOGY. Various types of meadows. Flight period: May-October in two to three generations; in montane meadows at 2,500-3,000 m a.s.l. it flies in June-July, presumably in a single generation. Host plants (Kurentzov,1970; Fukuda et al., 1982): Fabaceae (Trifolium, Vicia, etc.), sometimes a pest of soybean plants (Glycine max).
• SIMILAR SPECIES. C. erate: UPS dark border typically entire, without pale spots; FW less strongly produced. C. erschoffii: larger; UPS ground colour greenish-orange. C. hyale: smaller; UPS black pattern less strongly developed. C. sareptensis: UPS ground colour lemon-yellow; FW termen convex.

Photo and text: Guide to the BUTTERFLIES OF RUSSIA and adjacent territories Volume 1. PENSOFT, Sofia - Moscow. 1997