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LEPIDOPTERA

Ochlodes sylvanus (Esper, [1778])
Ochlodes sylvanus (Esper, [1778])

• TYPE LOCALITY. Germany.

• SYNONYMS: melicerta Bergstrasser, 1780; faunus Turati, 1905; alexandra Hemming, 1934; esperi Verity, 1934.

• RANGE. Trans-Palaearctic: almost the whole of Europe (except for the northernmost parts); eastwards across Asia Minor to Syria and Iran and across Central Asia and Siberia to Mongolia, Korea and Sakhalin.

• DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. The European part, the whole Caucasus, Middle Asia from Kopet-Dagh to Dzhungarsky Alatau, Kazakhstan, Siberia from the Altai to the Amur and Ussuri regions, the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands. A highly variable species displaying many individual and local forms. Varies in size, UPS and UNS ground colour, development and intensity of UPS dark pattern, and UNS pale spots. The bulk of the range is inhabited by the nominate subspecies. Other distinctive forms are the ssp. hyrcana Christoph, 1893 (the Talysh Mts. and W. Kopet-Dagh) and the ssp. similis Leech, 1894 (the S. Amur and Ussuri regions, Sakhalin and the Kuriles).

• TAXONOMIC NOTES. The nomenclature, synonymy and subspecific composition of this species as given here are somewhat tentative. For the last several decades, 0. sylvanus has been confused with 0. venata, its own subspecies being regarded as subspecies of the latter. Separation of the two species causes the problem of naming the trans-Palaearctic one, the name sylvanus being considered as a homonym. The taxonomic and nomenclatural situation in the number and names of the forms involved, mostly of uncertain status, is highly complicated and confused, and for the purpose of stability of the nomenclature a request has been submitted to the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature about conservation of the oldest available name, sylvanus.

• HABITATS AND BIOLOGY. Meadows, forest edges and clearings as well as other grassy habitats (often in anthropogenic landscapes), in the mountains up to 2,000 m a.s.l. Flight period: June-September in one generation, in the south possibly plurivoltine. Larvae feeding (Eckstein, 1913; etc.) on various grasses [Poa annua, Agropyron repens, Festuca, etc.). There is also a hint that Coronilla varia (Faba-ceae) can also be a host plant (Kumakov, Korshunov, 1979).

• SIMILAR SPECIES. 0. venata: larger, FW apex produced and acute, UPS dark border faint or absent, UNH uniform tawny with contrasting veins. Hesperia comma: FW narrower, UPS ground colour reddish-tawny, UNH ground colour darker greenish with contrasting, sharply defined pale spots.

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