LEPIDOPTERA

• S A T Y R I D A E Boisduval, 1833

  • LASIOMMATA Westwood, 1849

    
    

    • Lasiommata megera (Linnaeus, 1767)

Lasiommata megera (Linnaeus, 1767)

· TYPE LOCALITY. Austria, Denmark.

· RANGE. From N. Africa across Europe, the Caucasus and Asia Minor to the Middle East, also Middle Asia and Kazakhstan up to Dzhungaria in the east.

· DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. The major part of the range (the S. European part, the Caucasus Major, W. Siberia, N. Tian-Shan, Dzhungarsky Alatau) is inhabited by the nominate subspecies. In addition, the following forms have been described: megerina (Herrich-Schaffer, 1856) - Transcaucasia; transcaspica (Staudinger, 1901) - Turkmenia. The status of these taxa is unclear, most probably only infrasubspecific.

· HABITAT AND BIOLOGY. Preferring forest edges and clearings, shrubby habitats in ravines and river valleys, parks and sparse woodlands; in the mountains it occurs also in rocky and, rarely, semi-desert habitats up to the subalpine zone (2,000 m a.s.l.). Flight period: March-April to August-September in two or three generations depending of the locality and altitude. Host plants (Nekrutenko, 1990; Hesselbarth et al., 1995; etc.): grasses Festuca, Bromus, Deschampsia, Poa, Dactylis, Brachypodium, etc. Larva hibernating.

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