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LEPIDOPTERA

Coenonympha tullia (Muller, 1764)
Coenonympha tullia (Muller, 1764)

· TYPE LOCALITY. "Fridrichsdal (Seeland)" [Zealand Is., Denmark]

· RANGE. The entire Palaearctic Region, except for the extreme north and south, and N. America.

· DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. The nominate subspecies (= tiphon Rottemburg, 1775; = timanensis Sedykh, 1977) is distributed in the European part and W. Siberia. In addition, the following subspecies can be recognized:

ssp. suecica Hemming, 1936 (= fridolini Kusnezov in Davenport, 1941; = minimus Sedykh, 1977) - the N. European part (the Khibiny and Polar Ural Mts.) and N. Siberia (the Yamal Peninsula);

ssp. chatiparae Sheljuzhko, 1937 - the Caucasus Major;

ssp. elwesi Davenport, 1941 - the Altai Mts.;

ssp. sibirica Davenport, 1941 - the Amur region;

ssp. viluiensis Menetries, 1859 (= witimensis Davenport, 1941) - East Siberia, the Chukot Peninsula;

ssp. mixturata Alpheraky, 1897 - the Far East, Kamchatka.

· TAXONOMIC NOTES. The taxonomy of this widely distributed and variable species is not sufficiently studied yet. Within the area concerned the species shows a lot of forms, the status of which is rather obscure and the distribution limits mostly not defined.

· HABITAT AND BIOLOGY. A boreal species characteristic of moorlands and taiga; in the plain is distributed in the coniferous forest zone inhabiting moorlands, riverside meadows, swamps; in the mountains up to 2,000 m a.s.l. Flight period: June-July, in the north July-August. Larvae hibernating. Host plants (Lang, 1884; Henriksen, Kreutzer, 1982; Gorbunov, Korshunov, 1995; etc.): Eriophorum, Carex, Rhynchospora, Festuca, Poa, Stipa.

· SIMILAR SPECIES. C. caeca: FW without apical ocelli. C. pamphilus: UPS termen more or less broadly darkened. C. symphita: UNH without white spots and almost always with a complete row of ocelli.

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