LEPIDOPTERA

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

  • MELITAEA Fabricius, 1807

    
    

    • Melitciea minerva Staudinger, 1881

Melitciea minerva Staudinger, 1881

• TYPE LOCALITY. «Ala Tau» [Dzhungarsky Alatau, Kazakhstan].

• RANGE. Tian-Shan.

• DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. The nominotypi-cal subspecies lives in the N. Tian-Shan and the Dzhungarsky Alatau Mts. From the Inner Tian-Shan (Baidulu Mts.), the ssp. pseudotersa Kolesnichenko et Churkin, 2000 is known. From the Kara-Tau Mts., the ssp. repens Kolesnichenko et Churkin, 2000 has been described. In the Karzhantau and Chatkal mts., the ssp. tersa Kolesnichenko et Churkin, 2000 is known to occur. The Chatkalsky Mts. (Lake Sary-CheIek) support the ssp. acerba Kolesnichenko et Churkin, 2000.

• HABITAT AND BIOLOGY. A species common over wet mountain meadows at about 1,000 to 3.000 m a.s.l. Flight period: May to August, in two generations.

• SIMILAR SPECIES. Melitaea sultanensis: genitalia different. M. pallas: with a reduced postdiscal row of black spots on UNF; genitalia different. M. solona: inner part of median band on UNH yellowish.

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