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LEPIDOPTERA

Nymphalis antiopa (Linnaeus, 1758)
Nymphalis antiopa (Linnaeus, 1758)

•SYNONYMS; pompadour (Pollich, 1783); morio (Retzius, 1783); borealis (Wnukow-sky, 1927); asopos (Fruhstorfer, 1909).

•RANGE. Temperate belt of the Holarctic Region.

•DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. A lot of infrasubspecific categories have been described, especially temperature forms but, since overall variability is not so great, division into subspecies seems unwarranted.

•HABITATS AND BIOLOGY. Mixed deciduous forest close to rivers and streams. Flight period: April to May and July to September. Host plant in the Ussuri region (Dantchenko & Nikolaevsky, in press): Salix caprea. Eggs laid in a compact ring of about 50-150 around a twig. Instar 1 larvae living in web nests. Pupation on stems of trees, on fences and in other shelters. Imago hibernating at base of stem or between roots, often in houses. In spring, butterflies feed on fermenting birch sap.

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