LEPIDOPTERA
N Y M P H A L I D A E Swainson, 1827
POLYGONIA Hubner, [1818]
Polygonia c-album (Linnaeus, 1758)
Polygonia c-album (Linnaeus, 1758)
•TYPE LOCALITY. [Sweden].
• SYNONYMS: /-album (Esper, [1783]); g-album (Fourcroy, 1785), pictior Verity. 1919, etc.
• RANGE. Forest belt of the Palaearctic Region.
• DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. Occurring everywhere, including Transcaucasia and the Kopet-Dagh but exclusive of the mountains of Middle Asia and the extreme north. This species is rather constant in habitus, but it has two seasonal forms. One of these, autumnal (hibernating), displays a dark UNS, the other, summer, has a light UNS and gives a second generation, as a rule. The light morph from the western part of the geographical range is referred to as hatchinsonii Robson, 1881, the same morph from the eastern part as lunigera (Butler, 1881). Both seasonal forms can occur all over the summer period, but it is only the dark form that is known to hibernate. The ssp. kultukensis Kleinschmidt, 1929 populates Transbaikalia, hamigera (Butler, 1877) (= fentoni (Butler, 1878); coreana Bryk, 1946) the Ussuri region, and sach.alin.ens is Matsumura, 1915 the Sakhalin Island. However, the distinctions from the nominotypical subspecies are insignificant.
•HABITATS AND BIOLOGY. Widely distributed over the entire forest and forest-steppe belts where it occurs in all types of woodland and park, in gardens and similar landscapes. Flight period: March to October. Part of the each population develop in two generations. Hibernation imaginal. Host plants: Urtica, Humulus. Korshunov & Gorbunov (1995) have also noted Ulmus and Salix. In the Ussuri region, larvae have been reported on Ulmus japonica (Kurentzov, 1970). Larvae living in web nests. Pupation on thin twigs, dry leaves, etc.
•SIMILAR SPECIES. Polygonia c-aureum: blue spots on UPS present, as a rule. P. egea: black basal spot on UPH absent or strongly reduced. P. interposita: black marking extended; cuts of wings rounded.
Photo and text: Guide to the BUTTERFLIES OF RUSSIA and adjacent territories Volume 2. PENSOFT, Sofia - Moscow. 2000