LEPIDOPTERA

• H E S P E R I I D A E Latreille, 1809

  • THYMELICUS Hubner, [1819]

    
    

    • Thymelicus lineola (Ochsenheimer, 1808)

Thymelicus lineola (Ochsenheimer, 1808)

• TYPE LOCALITY. "Deutschland" [Germany].

• SYNONYMS: virgula Hubner, [1813].

• RANGE. From N. Africa and W. Europe through the temperate zone to E. Asia; introduced to N. America.

• DISTRIBUTION AND VARIATION. The European part, the whole Caucasus, Middle Asia from the Kopet-Dagh to Tian-Shan, Siberia from the Altai to the Ussuri region and Sakhalin. Variable individually, geographically and between generations in size, coloration, black marginal suffusion and development of the stigma. Represented by the nominate subspecies over most of the range, while the ssp. kushana Wyatt, 1961 has been described from an adjacent territory (N. Afghanistan).

• HABITATS AND BIOLOGY. Meadows, forest edges and clearings, in the mountains up to 2,000 m a.s.l. or even higher. Flight period: May-August in one or, in the south, two generations depending on the altitude and latitude. Host plants in Europe (Eckstein, 1913; Forster, Wohlfahrt, 1955; etc.): various grasses (Agro-pyron repens, Phleum pratense, Dactylis spp., Arrhenatherum elatus^ etc.). Larvae hibernating, but in Fennoscandia the egg is known to be the hibernating stage.

• SIMILAR SPECIES. T. sylvestris: stigma long and curved, antenna! club fulvous or brownish below.

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