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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
                                                                                                                                                                        9
                                                                                                                                                                        9   10  1
                                                                                                                                                                            0
                                                                                                                                                                           1
                                                                                                                                             1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9   10  11  12
                                                                                                                                                          HJJ  1    2    3     4     6  7  8  91 0  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

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