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August; another female, collected on the same day, & Katchalski, 1935; Bodenheimer, 1937). Likely tiny
commenced laying 70 days later, at the end of October. relict populations in the high, inaccessible cliffs of
All eggs were laid singly on dry grasses or on the walls of S Sinai Massif and possibly Edom, Jordan indicate an
breeding cages, possibly simulating egg laying on rocks insecure future and call for the species to be officially
and stones in the wild. White when laid, eggs are barrel- protected there. Despite searches of the Kantara
shaped with 14 vertical ribs, 0.8-0.9 mm high, 0.7-0.8 range, persephone has not been seen in Cyprus since
mm maximum diameter, and turn grey before eclosion. 2010; its status there is uncertain. Indeed, a marginal
L1 emerges after 8-12 days, eats the eggshell, except existence across the Levant, coupled with the species’
the base. L1 is 1.6-2.0 mm long, light greyish-brown with cryptic nature implies that we may never be certain if 6
a pink tint, and has a mid-dorsal row of brown spots, persephone has completely disappeared from any of
sub-dorsal wider pinkish-brown bands, and lateral rows its remaining footholds in the region. Unlike at other © Aadam Warecki © Wolfgang Wagner
of tiny brown spots. The whole body is covered with short Levant localities, persephone, once rare in the 1970s
setae. L1 nibbled on green blades of Poa, Brachypodium on Mt Hermon (Nakamura & Benyamini, 1980), became DGXOW
0
1
1
0
91
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
HJJ 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 9 10 1 1 12
and Piptatherum spp. that were provided, larval colour the second most common large satyrine there (after lar v a
pupa
changed to green. By mid-December, all were in diapause P. pelopea) in the 21st century. The Syrian population
in stages L1-L3, although it appeared that those L1 that is also ‘not rare in Syrian Anti Lebanon and even near
had not fed, died before fresh grass was available. The Slenfeh’ (Wolfgang ten Hagen, pers. comm. to DB).
following spring, L5 grew to ca. 35 mm, becoming brown, Slenfah (Slunfeh, Slenfah) (1150 m) is located on the
with segments bearing four dark brown longitudinal eastern Slopes of the Syrian coastal range, 36 km E of
lines, two of which extend to the forehead. The pupa is /DWDNLD DQG NP 6 RI <D\ODGDøL +DWD\ 6 7XUNH\ 5DWHG
ca. 17 mm long, the thorax and abdomen reddish-brown EN in the Israeli Butterfly red list (Renan et al., 2022, © Wolfgang Wagner
and the wing cases, ochre. Pupates ventral side up and (in prep.)).
hatches after 3-5 weeks.
5HFRUGHG KRVWSODQWV Poaceae (Gramineae). On Mt 'LVWULEXWLRQ
Hermon, it shares the same hostplants as P. pelopea:
Dactylis glomerata, Elymus libanoticus, Bromus, TL: “Russland, bei Sarepta”, near Volgograd, S Russia.
Aegilops and Poa spp. Distributed from Turkey (not recorded yet from Hatay –
Atahan et al., 2018) to Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and
&RQVHUYDWLRQ in slow decline in the Levant, having Sinai, N & W Iran, N Iraq to Baluchistan, Afghanistan,
disappeared from Mt Carmel, Haifa, N Israel (where S Russia, C Asia and W Siberia. Based on photographic
specimens were collected by the German Templers, evidence of a single specimen found in Cyprus, the
Keller and Lange at the end of the 19th century (von species’ continued presence there has been tentatively © Aadam Warecki
Kalchberg, 1897; Graves, 1925), and from Jerusalem/ accepted (John et al., 2011 and DB pers. comm) as C.
Palestine, where a specimen was collected on 7.8.1945 persephone reaches its southern Levant limit in S Sinai.
by Prof. Bytinski-Salz. The latter specimen is now in the Ssp. C. p. transiens Zerny, 1932; TL: N Lebanon flies in
national collection at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural the Levant.
History, Ramat Aviv, Israel (Amsel, 1933; Bodenheimer

Migrating adult in Kiryat Tivon, 3 km from Mt Carmel, N Israel, 20 May 2020. © Aadam Warecki © Wolfgang Wagner

Ļ NW Syria, Jabel el Ansariye NE Latakia © Aadam Warecki

H. s. statilinus
1300-1500 m, 04.08.1999
1300-1500 m, 04.08.1999

© Shalev Weisman © Marva Shmueli © Dubi Benyamini © Aadam Warecki

84 93

2Butterflies of the Levant danaidae satyridae.indd 84 12/30/2021 4:23:58 PM 2Butterflies of the Levant danaidae satyridae.indd 93 12/30/2021 4:24:33 PM