LEPIDOPTERA

• N Y M P H A L I D A E Swainson, 1827

  • MELITAEA Fabricius, 1807

    
    

    • Melitaea sultanensis Staudinger, 1886

Melitaea sultanensis Staudinger, 1886

• TYPE LOCALITY. «Umgegend von Samarcand» [Vicinity of Samarkand, Ghissarsky Mts., Uzbekistan].

• RANGE. From the Ghissar-Darvaz to the Pamirs-Alai and the Tian-Shan; Afghanistan. Pakistan. NW. India.

• DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. The Ghissar is populated by the nominotypical subspecies (= fumurata Achtelik, 1999); the Darvaz by the ssp. gabrielae Achtelik, 1999, the Alai and Transalai mts. by the ssp. sebastiani Achtelik, 1999, and the Tian-Shan and the E. Alai by the ssp. palamedes Grum-Grshimailo, 1890 (= danieli Achtelik, 1999) (Kolesnichenko, 2000). From the E. Pamirs, the ssp. elisabethae Avinov, 1910 has been established. The latter taxon probably represents a distinct species. The taxon balbina Tytler, 1926, from Chitral, belongs to this species as well.

• HABITATS AND BIOLOGY. Ecologically, a highly plastic species common in xerophytous stations at about 1,000 to 3,500 m a.s.l. Lower in the mountains, it has two generations, flight from May to July. High-montane specimens are about twice as little as low-montane ones, with a single generation.

• SIMILAR SPECIES. Melitaea minerva, M. pallas, M. solona: genitalia different.

Photo and text: Guide to the BUTTERFLIES OF RUSSIA and adjacent territories Volume 2. PENSOFT, Sofia - Moscow. 2000