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LEPIDOPTERA

Argynnis laodice (Pallas, 1771)
Argynnis laodice (Pallas, 1771)

• TYPE LOCALITY. «Russia» [S. European part of Russia].

• SYNONYM. cethosia (Fabricius, 1793).

• RANGE. Central and S. European part, Amur and Ussuri regions; China, Korea, Japan.

• DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. Range disjunct, with a large gap between the European and the Asian populations. Yet the geographical variability is very little. The specimens from the Amur and Ussuri regions are somewhat larger and with a well-developed black marking. The nominotypical subspecies is distributed in the central and S. European parts, and the Caucasus Major. In the Amur and Ussuri regions, the ssp. jletcheri Watkins, 1924 (= ussurica Kardakov, 1928) is known to occur, the ssp. ferruginea Watkins, 1924 from Sakhalin, and the ssp. tomaridice Bryk, 1942 from the Kuriles. Besides this, many other species-group taxa have been described from the adjacent parts of Asia.

• HABITATS AND BIOLOGY. Humid meadows in the belts of mixed forest and forest-steppe. Flight period: July to August. Additional feeding usually on Sorbaria sorbifolia and Spiraea. In the European part, this species is very local because of habitat decline. Being active migrants, some specimens can occur far away from the place of birth. Host plant in Europe (Higgins & Riley, 1970): Viola palustris.

• SIMILAR SPECIES. Argynnis sagana (males): androconial scales present on four veins of UPF. A. ruslana: androconial scales present on three veins of UPF; apex of FW extended.

 

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