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LEPIDOPTERA

Erebia maurisius (Esper, [1803])
Erebia maurisius (Esper, [1803])

· TYPE LOCALITY. "...in der Gegend Catharinaburg". The type locality is given wrong (see under "TAXONOMIC NOTES").

· SYNONYMS: brimo Boeber, 1809, infrasubspecies; stubbendorfii Menetries, 1846; connexa Warren, 1930.

· RANGE. The Altai and Sayan Mts., Tuva, the Baikal area, N. Mongolia.

· TAXONOMIC NOTES. In the original description, "Catharinaburg" is indicated as the type-locality of this species, which might have been either "Ekaterinburg" in the Urals or Ekaterino-Nikolskoye at the western spurs of the Bureyinsky Mts. However, the species is known neither from the Urals nor from the Amur region. Hence, the type material must have been either mislabelled or it may prove to be identical to a later described species, E. pawlowskii Menetries, 1859. In the latter case, the name E. maurisius (Esper,[1803]) (= pawlowskii Menetries, 1859) should be used for the E. Siberian specimens, whereas the taxon known today as E. maurisius should be allotted the oldest available name, elwesi Staudinger, 1901. The type-locality being obscure, the original description very brief and the species polymorphous, re-examination of all related species is mandatory to clarify the identity of this complex. Lukhtanov (1994) and Korshunov & Gorbunov (1995) regard the taxon stubbendorfii Menetries, 1846 as a distinct species, and the name connexa Warren, 1930 as its synonym. In our opinion, further studies, particularly revisions, are necessary to arrive at a final conclusion, as many individuals with transitional characters have been encountered. The name maurisius, however, cannot be rejected only on the ground of an apparently erroneous type locality, as has been suggested by Korshunov & Gorbunov (1995).

· HABITAT AND BIOLOGY. Meadows and steppe-clad slopes up to 2,500 m a.s.l. Flight period: June-July.

· SIMILAR SPECIES. E. theano: larger; fringes pale; UPF postdiscal band abruptly narrowing after vein M3. E. pawlowskii: UNF ochreous postdiscal bands darker than UNH.

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