Melanargia russiae

Melanargia russiae, or Esper's marbled white, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae.[1] It is found in Spain, Portugal, south-eastern France, Italy, the Balkans, southern Russia, the Caucasus and western Siberia.

Melanargia russiae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Nymphalidae
Genus:
Melanargia
Species:
M. russiae
Binomial name
Melanargia russiae
(Esper, 1783)
Synonyms
  • Papilio russiae Esper, 1783

The male has a wingspan of 26–30 mm. In suwarovius Hbst. (— clotho Hbn., russiae Esp.) (38 e), which represents the species in the North and extends froni Hungary across South Russia and Siberia to the Altai, the discocellular band of the forewing becomes lighter in consequence of the appearance of a white central spot in the same, this white spot with its black border forming a kind of median ocellus. — In caucasica Nordm. (— xenia Frr.) (38 e) also the median band of the hindwing is rendered light by the appearance of white spots, the black markings therefore being all separated into stripes, lunules, and arcuate lines. In the Eastern Caucasus (Daghestan) and Armenia. — transcaspica Stgr. (38 e) has a little more black than this white form, the submarginal macular lines being thickened and proximally shaded with grey scaling, which extends on the veins as dark projections to the margin, the median band of the hindwing above also being filled in with dark scaling.[2]

Adults are on wing from June to August, although mainly in July in rocky places. There is one generation per year.

The larvae feed on Brachypodium, Poa, Stipa pennata and Aegilops geniculata. It overwinters in the larval stage

Subspecies
  • Melanargia russiae russiae
  • Melanargia russiae caucasiaca Nordmann, 1851 (Caucasus Minor, Armenian Highland, Talysh)
  • Melanargia russiae transcaspica Staudinger, 1901 (Kopet-Dagh)
  • Melanargia japygia (Cyrillo, 1787) (south Italy, Spain)
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References
  1. "Melanargia Meigen, 1828" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  2. Seitz. A. in Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter, 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren) This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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