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LEPIDOPTERA

Clossiana freija (Thunberg, 1791)
Clossiana freija (Thunberg, 1791)

• TYPE LOCALITY. Sweden.

• RANGE. Entire N. Palaearctic from Fennoscandia and Altais, Chukotka, Kamchatka. Ussuri region, Sakhalin, Japan; N. America down to Colorado in the south.

• DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. The European part, W. and central Siberia, the Far East, Transbaikalia, Chukotka, the Amur and Ussuri regions are inhabited by the nominotypical subspecies (=freya (Quensel, 1791), nom. praeoccup.; = lapponica(Esper, 1793)). In the Altais and Sayan, the ssp. pallida (Elwes, 1899) (= Calais (Fruhstorfer, 1917)) is known to occur, which is distinguishable from the nominotypical form by the lighter ground colour and the delicate black markings on the UPS. From NE. Yakutia, the largest subspecies, Jakutens is (Wnukowsky, 1927), has been described. The status of the specimens from Sakhalin Island is still unclear.

• HABITATS AND BIOLOGY. Light pine and/or larch forests, bush tundra and high bogs up to 1,600 m a.s.l. Flight period: May to July. Host plants in Siberia (Korshunov & Gorbunov, 1995): Rubus chamaemorus, Vaccinium uliginosum, Empetrum nigrum; in Scandinavia (Henriksen & Kreutzer, 1982): Arctostaphylos uuawsi, Arctous alpinci; in Japan (Fukuda et al., 1984): Sieuersia, Rhododendron: in N. America (Scott, 1986): Dry as integrifolia.

• SIMILAR SPECIES. Clossiana polaris: ground colour of UPS grey-brown; marginal white spots on UNH bright, arrow-like; UNH with three white spots at base. C. char-idea, C. butleri: marginal white spots of UNH extended along margin, nearly rectangular. C. frigga, C. improba: FW elongate; discal band of UNH with two, rarely one, whitish spots.

 

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