Pseudochazara amymone (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) in Albania: Variability analysis, androconial scales and new distributional data

By

Cuvelier, Sylvain
Mølgaard, Morten

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2015

Original Publication

Nota lepidopterologica

Volume

38

Series / Issue

Issue: 1

Pages

1--22

Subjects

Albania , Nymphalidae

Contributed by

BioStor

Language

English

Published by

Bonn,

Identifiers

BioStor: https://biostor.org/reference/166497
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/nl.38.9230

 

Abstract

For the first time a comparison of variable external characters of a series of males and females of Pseudochazara amymone (Brown, 1976) from southern Albania is conducted. Pseudochazara amymone, flying together with P. mniszechii tisiphone (Brown, 1980), was local and quite common in steep valleys on ophiolite substrate on two separate mountains, one of which is a recently discovered locality by Eckweiler (2012), while the other one is a new locality. An analysis of external characters of all specimens from the two localities suggests no statistically significant differences. In the field, patrolling P. amymone males are easily distinguished from P. mniszechii tisiphone males but this is not the case for females, and therefore we provide determination keys for males and females of these two species. These are based on a statistical analysis of a specimen series from one Albanian P. mniszechii tisiphone population compared with all P. amymone in this study. Photographs of androconia, copula and some extreme forms of P. amymone are presented. To encourage further research in this poorly explored country a map is included, showing all historical records of Papilionoidea from literature, including our own observations.