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LEPIDOPTERA

Parnassius bremeri
Parnassius bremeri bremeri Bremer, 1864

· TYPE LOCALITY. "...der Mundung des Oldoi, an der Dseja und im Bureja-Gebirge; ...am Ussuri, van seiner Mundung bis zur Ema" (The delta of Oldoi River discharging into Zeya River and Bureinsky Mts., Amur region; the delta of Etna River discharging into Ussuri River, Ussuri region, Russia).
· RANGE. From Lake Baikal to the Ussuri region in the east; NE. China and Korea.
· DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. Over its vast range (Transbaikalia, the Amur and Ussuri regions, the Kuriles), the species shows a wide spectrum of morphological variation. The most well-known forms are as follows: ssp. conjunctus Staudinger, 1901 (the Ussuri region); ssp. graeseri Honrath, 1885 (Transbalkalia); ssp. amgunensis Sheljuzhko, 1928 (the lower Amur region). The narrow coastal zone of the Sikhote-Ann Mts. is inhabited by the ssp. orotschonicus O. Bang-Haas, 1927 (= olgensis Kardakov, 1928); the Kunashir Island is populated by the ssp. nipponus Kreuzberg, 1992. The nominate subspecies lives in the middle Amur flow region. Numerous other forms described within this species are most likely to represent only infrasubspecific varieties of no taxonomic status.
· HABITATS AND BIOLOGY . Inhabiting open landscapes in plains (forest-steppe), as well as slopes with woodlands up to the alpine zone (1,500 m a.s.l.). Flight period: May-June. Host plants: Sedum clizoorl, S. ussuriensis, S. ishida and Orostachys malacophylla.
· SIMILAR SPECIES. P. phoebus. smaller, veins almost indistinct against the ground color, HW with a red basal spot.

Photo and text: Guide to the BUTTERFLIES OF RUSSIA and adjacent territories Volume 1. PENSOFT, Sofia - Moscow. 1997