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LEPIDOPTERA

Melitaea didymoides Eversmann, 1847
Melitaea didymoides Eversmann, 1847

• TYPE LOCALITY. «...ad Kiachtam Siberia orientalis» [Kyakhta, Buryatia, Russia].

• SYNONYMS. sibirica Staudinger, 1861, nom. nudum; sibirica [Heyne], [1893], nom. praeoccup.; mandchurica Seitz, [1909], nom. praeoccup.; seitzi Matsumura, 1929; mandschukoana Bryk, 1940, etc., see below.

• RANGE. From Transbaikalia to the Amur and Ussuri regions; Mongolia, NE. China.

• DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. The nominotypical subspecies is known to occur in ?S. Tuva, Transbaikalia and the Amur region. The S. Ussuri region is inhabited by the ssp. yagakuana Matsumura, 1927. From the adjacent territories, the following taxa have been described: ssp. latonia Grum-Grshimailo, 1891, from central China; ssp. pekinensis Seitz, [1909], from N. China; ssp. eupatides Fruhstorfer, 1917, from Gansu, central China (= cansicola Bryk, 1940); and ssp. hummeli Bryk, 1940, fromS. Mongolia.

• HABITATS AND BIOLOGY. Dry meadows and/or xerothermic slopes with thin vegetation. Flight period: June to July.

• SIMILAR SPECIES. Melitaea sutschana, M. latonigena: submarginal lunules of UPH more or less developed.

 

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