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 Proterebia phagea (Borkhausen, 1788)            Steppe Ringlet                                                               21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 8 - A | 22-01-02 | 10:39:03 | SR:-- | Cyan



 The Palaearctic, cold adapted and widespread satyrine   level. The pupa is squat, greyish-brown, 13-14 mm
 genus  Erebia, is not represented in the Levant where   ORQJ DQG KDWFKHV DIWHU    GD\V  %DUWRŁRYi        -RKQ
 the climate is too dry and hot. However, the related   Coutsis and Tristan Lafranchis, pers. comms.; Jutzeler &
 Proterebia phegea (formerly P. afra, tribe Erebiini, Tutt,   /DIUDQFKLV        0LKRFL   ãDäLý
 1896), known also as the Dalmatian Ringlet, is regarded
 as an Asian steppe species with a relict European   5HFRUGHG KRVWSODQWV  Poaceae (Gramineae). In Europe:
 GLVWULEXWLRQ   %DUWRŁRYi  et al., 2017, 2018), expanded   Festuca ovina, Bromus condensatus and possibly other
 westwards from Iran in the last climatic optimum and   Poaceae spp.   © Dubi Benyamini  © Dubi Benyamini  © Dubi Benyamini
 appears to have existed in coastal Levant regions until   8
 about 100 years ago, when it was last collected before   'LVWULEXWLRQ
 extinction. The species had been unknown in the
 Levant until an envelope labelled ‘Sarepta, Libanon’*,   TL: “...in Russiae australioris desertis Dom. Bober” (S
 containing 21 males from the Staudinger/Bang-Hass   Russia), from the Dalmatian coast (Croatia), N Greece
 collection (1920-35?) was found in material sent   (Askio and Vourinos Mts), Crimea, C & E Turkey across
 for setting from Dresden Museum, Germany to the   the Caucasus, N Iran, S Urals, and Kazakhstan to W
 Zoological Museum, Jagiellonian University, Krakow,   Siberia. ‘Sarepta’, as mentioned above, refers to the
 Poland (18 returned and 3 retained, Tomasz Pyrcz, pers.   ruins of the ancient Phoenician city of Zarephath, near   Ļ
 comm.) – see Distribution. It is possibly the first of the   modern Sarafand, a coastal Lebanese town located at
 cold-adapted species to begin the northwards retreat in   33º27’N: 35º18’E, 22 m asl, between Tyre and Sidon.
 response to the warming climate that followed the end   It is ca. 430 km SSE of the (nowadays) closest Turkish
 of the last glaciation period and accelerated nowadays   phegea (P.  afra) population ‘5 km S Dorf Sertavul’,
 by the greenhouse effect. An early spring flyer, phegea   Taurus Mts, Mersin Province, Lat. 36º52’ N, 1460 m
 is well adapted to late winter storms and will drop to   asl (Hesselbarth  et al., 1995(2): 851). What caused
 the ground in cloudy weather or at the approach of rain,   the Lebanese extinction is unclear; the population, of   © Dubi Benyamini
 and will hide effectively among stones and rock crevices   Asian origin that forms part of the post-Eocene westerly   Samaria Desert, Kohav HaShahar, Rehavam’s Caves 620 m, 11 August 2019. P. telephassa adults aestivated on its backwalls.
 (John Coutsis, pers. obs. in Lesvos Island, Greece). In   expansion, possibly suffered from wet periods that led to
 Europe, a preference is shown for warm mountain slopes   the present-day disjunct & spotty European distribution.
 and open dry steppe-like grassland. P. phegea was used   We cannot rule out the possibility that local pressure
 in the logo design for the 20th SEL European Congress   of urbanization and agriculture along the populated
 of Lepidopterology, Podgora, Dalmatia, Croatia (April,   Lebanese coast contributed to its final local extinction.
 2017). It was selected not only because of its unique,
 isolated ssp.  dalmata (Godart, 1824), which is at the   * - Sarepta is a district of Volgograd (ex Stalingrad) in S. Russia. It is a
 western limit of its world distribution, but also because   well-known and famous butterfly region and origin of several butterfly
 it is listed as (NT) ‘Near threatened’ in the Croatian Red   species due to German settlers that inhabited the region since 1765.
 List. The satyrine is absent from the greener coastal   Omitting the word “Liban” from the phegeas envelope change the whole
 story as Sarepta - nowadays the city Krasnoarmeyskiy Rayon, South of
 areas, but inhabits the more arid steppe-like regions of   Volgograd, S Russia is in phegea northern known distribution (Della
 inner Dalmatia, where there are fears that it may lose   Bruna, C. et al., 2002: 29)
 its preferred biotopes and become endangered due to
 the abandonment of extensive grazing and resulting
 VXFFHVVLRQDO  VFUXE  GHYHORSPHQW   %DUWRŁRYi
 pers. comm.). Proterebia phegea is a monotypic species.


 %LRORJ\                                                                      Ļ

 )OLJKW SHULRG  March/April to July 600-1200 m in Greece.
 Date unknown for Lebanon.

 /LIH KLVWRU\  univoltine. Courting and mating take place
 around midday; couples in cop. hide among grasses and
 do not tend to fly. Eggs are laid at the base of the LHP
 or dropped in flight every ~50 cm while females hover
 low over potential hostplant grasses. White when laid,
 eggs are 1.3 mm in diameter, smooth with fine vertical
 ribs, hatching after 13–19 days. L1 is 3 mm long, white
 with short hairs and five longitudinal thin reddish-brown
 lines and a light brown head with six round black spots.
 Larvae commence feeding but diapause in mid-summer,
 to resume feeding in autumn-winter upon re-growth of
 fresh hostplants. Feeding at night, they grow to 30 mm
 at L5, when the body is striped with longitudinal lines
 of green, white and brown shades. It overwinters among
 grass clumps and pupates in early spring at ground   © Tolga Demir                                 © Stav Talal


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