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Melanargia titea (Klug, 1832) Levantine Marbled White

The most common Melanargia in the Levant, where micropyle. L1 hatches after 12-14 days, nibbles around
hundreds may be seen at the height of the short (two to the egg top and pushes upwards to emerge. L1 is hairy,
three week) flight season. With no geographical barrier 2.5 mm long, light brown with five, thin longitudinal
and with much morphological variability, titea may be brown lines, and with body tapering to the anal end. The
#
present as lighter or darker specimens. The following, eggshell may be eaten, after which the newly emerged
sometimes overlapping, ssp./forms have been described larva enters a six-eight months summer aestivation,
from the Levant: commencing feeding towards the end of December or
D the nominate ssp. titea from Beirut, Lebanon, flies later at higher elevations. Larvae feed at night and hide
in the Levant species’ centre of distribution. This is the at the base of the hostplant during the day, moving
21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 5 - B | 21-12-22 | 12:22:47 | SR:-- | Magenta
21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 5 - B | 21-12-22 | 12:22:47 | SR:-- | Yellow
darkest ssp./form, with a broad submarginal area of slowly to avoid detection. Larvae grow to 28-35 mm, © Feza Can © Dubi Benyamini © Dubi Benyamini
#21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 5 - B | 21-12-22 | 12:22:47 | SR:-- | Black
21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 5 - B | 21-12-22 | 12:22:47 | SR:-- | Cyan
the male uph where the ocelli are within the black area. and are decorated with longitudinal, light, pastel green-
The cell in the basal area of the upf is white or slightly brown-reddish-pinkish stripes. When alerted, larvae
suffused with black. The female is dark-brown and the elevate from their prolegs and lower the head. Larvae
underside has a yellow-orange tint (Bozano, 2002: 12); pupate, ventral side up, beneath litter on the ground,
E ssp./form titania which is lighter, with ocelli open to with no silken web. Another Melanargia sp., i.e. M.
the white uph and has the widest distribution in Israel, N galathea, was reported to pupate ‘at the surface of the
Jordan, S Lebanon, Syria and S Hatay; ground, under soil or moss’ (Thomas & Lewington, 2014:
F ssp./form standfussi is the lightest of the Levant titea, 253); and head up at bottom of grasses (Lafranchis et
distributed from N Hatay north-eastwards, out of the al., (2015: 683); Adam Warecki, pers. comm.). The light-
Levant to S Malatya and C Adiyaman districts of Turkey. brown pupa, has a thin, dense dark net painting over its
However, its ethology is identical everywhere: M. titea is wing cases, and is 15 mm in length. Adults hatch after
a weak flyer, fluttering close to the ground, usually near 2-3 weeks. © Dubi Benyamini © Dubi Benyamini © Dubi Benyamini
its hostplants (Poaceae spp.) and adults are attracted
to flowers of Dipsaceae, Centaurea spp. and other $GXOW FKHPLFDO GHIHQFH Melanargia spp. are typified
composites. Specimens from high elevations sometimes by a slow, fluttering and gliding flight, their coloration
have a yellow tint to the extensive white ground colour. and patterning not typically aposematic, but such a
M. titea is the most common of the mainland Levant warning signalling might be conveyed by the fluttering
satyrines. Night-roosting was reported by Larsen in black and white wings, allowing nectaring (e.g. on
Lebanon (1973b). They congregate to sip nectar together Centaurea and Dipsaceae spp., the favoured nectar
(group nectaring). sources in the Levant), seemingly without risk of
predation. The ‘aposematic’ appearance derives from
flavonoids, which are responsible for the yellowish and
white colour of the wings, but as flavonoids are largely
%LRORJ\ non-toxic, the hostplants are, as stated by Dennis &
Shreeve (2004) ‘not leading candidates for chemical
)OLJKW SHULRG early March around the Sea of Galilee defence’. The nature of the suspected chemical
(-200 m, bsl), near Beit She’an upper Jordan Valley defence (that had remained unknown for nearly two
(Graves, 1925a) and the Samarian Desert; April on the and a half centuries since the initial description of
coast to the third week of June at 1200 m in the C & S the type species, Papilio galathea Linnaeus, 1758), © Dubi Benyamini © Ali Atahan
Mediterranean zone (Benyamini, 2002: 136); May-June was revealed by Nash (in Rothschild, 2001) as Loline,
from 300 to 1200 m in Hatay (Atahan et al., 2018: 72); a toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA). The toxin was found
mid-May at 1000 m to the third week of July in S Lebanon to be present (at least in British M. galathea reared
(Gebel Barouk, 1960 m), Mt Lebanon Cedar range and on Agropyron sp., Poaceae) in both adults and pupae,
Anti-Lebanon Mt Hermon (both 2000 m) (Larsen, 1974: and was shown to have been sequestered from grasses
130-131 & DB pers. obs.); 1545-2400 m in Al-Lazzab infected by an endophytic, symbiotic fungus of the
reserve Syrian Anti-Lebanon (Zarikian & Ghrejyan, 2018). genus Acremonium (see also Porter, 1994). Whether
grasses in the Levant are similarly infected, is not
/LIH KLVWRU\ univoltine. Attempted mating was observed known, therefore we cannot extrapolate that M. titea
in early May 2014, near Adar Mt 10 km NW Jerusalem uses PAs as a primary defence (Benyamini, 2003e).
(850 m), where a male was seen in pursuit of an Certainly, the aposematic appearance did not prevent
unreceptive female. Upon landing, several rejection the devouring by a chameleon of an entire M. titea, seen
postures were used by the female to repel the male: nectaring on Centaurea crocodylium in the garden of
initially wings were held open and vibrated, but when the DB, while a second chameleon appeared ready to follow
male tried to land, the female elevated her abdomen and suit (Benyamini, 2012c). Chemical defence is much
closed her wings, before turning head to head towards better known in pierine butterflies (e.g. Pieris rapae, P.
the male. When mated, the female carries the male in brassicae that sequester toxic mustard oils from their
cop. (DB field obs. & breeding notes). Females oviposit, Brassicaceae hostplants), than in Melanargia spp.
mostly without settling, while sipping nectar or fluttering that, behaviourally and morphologically, more closely
over the hostplants; in captivity, females oviposited resemble pierines than the satyrines.
while nectaring on Centaurea crocodylium flowers. Eggs
are white, spherical 1-1.25 mm in diam. (with tiny warts RHFRUGHG KRVWSODQWV Poaceae (Gramineae) – Avena
on 60-70% of the lower half) and slightly conical, with 15 sterilis, Brachypodium distachyon (Feingold, 2005b),
vertical ribs upwards to the nearly flat top bearing the Bromus spp., Piptatherum blancheanum & P. miliaceum. © Ali Atahan © Ali Atahan

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