LEPIDOPTERA

• N Y M P H A L I D A E Swainson, 1827

  • MELITAEA Fabricius, 1807

    
    

    • Melitaea alraschid Higgins, 1941

Melitaea alraschid Higgins, 1941

• TYPE LOCALITY. «Persia» [This type locality is certainly wrong, the true one must have lain in the Ghissarsky Mts., Tajikistan].

• RANGE. From Ghissar up to Matcha mountain system.

• DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. The nominotypical subspecies lives in the Ghissar; specimens from the Matcha mountain system belong to the ssp. gamn Churkin, 2000, being distinguished from the nominotypical form by reduction of the oval spot at the external end of the discal cell on the UNH and by the regularly arcuate postdiscal band on the UNH.

• HABITATS AND BIOLOGY. Fresh small-rock screes at 3,300-3,700 m a.s.l. Flight period; July.

• SIMILAR SPECIES. Melitaea fergana: ground colour of UPS with reddish hue, as a rule; genitalia different. M. ambrisia: black spot in discal cell on UPF rounded or oval; genitalia different.

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