tyche in North America ?

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

Hello Zdravko. Thank you for a most informative posting. I do not have my
copy of the Code handy but about your comments on the Ochlodes issue I
wonder if sylvanus is a primary or secondary homonym. If it is a primary
homonym then my recollection is that it would be permanently invalid under
the rules and could not be used in the future in a different genus as is
allowed for secondary homonyms. Also I agree that Oleg Kosterin does indeed
have an excellent website with much useful information in addition to the
photographs. People who are interested in English translations of a number
of original descriptions will find them at that website

-----Original Message-----
From: kolev at mappi.helsinki.fi [mailto:kolev at mappi.helsinki.fi]
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2001 3:06 PM
To: leps-l at lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: tyche in North America ?


A very interesting discussion... Here in Europe (apart from Finland,
which fortunately is more aware of Russian research on Leps than other
countries on the Old Continent) tradition still prevails: the new
"bible" on [western-] European butterflies (Tolman & Lewington 1997:
Collins Field Guide to Butterflies of Britain and Europe) still
mentions Colias nastes werdandi for Lapland...

Another similar example of European confusion includes "Ochlodes
venatus faunus", as Europeans refer to this common Hesperiid. More
than 6-7 years ago Russians have long since firmly established that
Ochlodes venatus is a Far-Eastern sp. which occurs together with the
morphologically clearly different "faunus": furthermore, European and
Far-Eastern "faunus" are remarkably similar but always clearly
different from venatus (abundant material examined in coll. Zoological
Museum, University of Helsinki). I write "faunus" because there are
several older names for the Eurasian species, of which the oldest,
sylvanus Esper, is a homonym but has been resurrected by some Russian
authors (Tuzov et al. 1997: Guide to the Butterflies of Russia and
adjacent
territories. Pensoft, Sofia - Moscow. Part 1.). Let us see how many
decades it takes for mainstream European lepidopterology to catch up
with this situation...

Regarding the nastes-tyche problem, I am not very familiar with its
finer points but here is the latest opinion of Russian experts:

---begin quote---

100. Colias tyche Bober, 1812. (= melinos Eversmann, 1847)
TYPE LOCALITY: Pribaikalye.
RANGE: The polar regions of Eurasia and Alaska, the mountains of the
temperate Asia.
HABITAT: meadow and steppe patches on southern slopes, river terraces,
in the extreme northern regions (the Yamal Peninsula) - river terrace
meadows, tundrous slopes with willow thickets; in the Upper Priamurye
- raised bogs with larch, open oak woods on dry slopes (Sviridov,
1981a), in the mountains - forb subalpine meadows, dwarf birch
thickets up to 2400 m above sea level (Central Altai).
FLIGHT PERIOD: depending on locality, from late May (Zabaikalye) to
August (the Taymyr Peninsula).
PREIMAGINAL PHASES: studied in Scandinavia (Henriksen, Kreutzer,
1983). Foodplants: Astragalus alpinus and Vaccinium are known from
Scandinavia, Oxytropis nigrescens is reported from Taymyr (Korshunov
et al., 1985), Caragana sp. - from Altai (V. Barkhatov). Eggs:
pale-yellow, ribbed, barrel-shaped, laid singly on the stems and
leaves of the foodplant. Larva: green with two yellow lengthwise
stripes on the back and a red line beneath them and a white spiracular
line on either side; the body is covered with sparse hairs up to 0.8
mm long. It hibernates, sometimes repeatedly. Pupa: green,
yellowish-green, or straw- coloured, with a slightly darker back.
PECULIAR TRAITS OF IMAGO: F.w.l.: 18-28 mm. The wing upperside is
whitish, with yellowish or greenish tint; on the fore wing the outer
border is pale and contains a row of large light spots, they often
fuse to split the border into two parallel ones. Similar species: C.
nastes.
GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION: is mostly masked by an individual variation.
The subspecies werdandi Setterschtadt, 1840, occupying the extreme
North of Europe, Polar Ural and North Siberia to the Taymyr Peninsula,
further eastwards, to the Magadan Region, ssp. herzi Staudinger, 1901
ranges. Besides, two taxa were described from this area: zemblida
Verity, 1911 from the Novaya Zemlya Isles and, by one male from the
Okhota River, relicta Kurenzov, 1970. (According to the opinion of J.
Troubridge, it is identical to the Canadian thula Hovanitz, 1915,
which is considered to be a colour morph of Colias boothii Curtis,
1875 which, in turn, is considered by some authors as a hybrid between
C. hecla and C. nastes). The subspecies tyche (= melinos Eversmann,
1847) ranges in Pribaikalye and the East Sayan, it differs from more
northern butterflies by in general lighter ground colour of the wing
upperside. The taxa montana Verity, 1911 (Altai Mts.), vitimensis
Austaut, 1899 (the Stanovoe Nagorye upland); deckerti Verity, 1909
(Zabaikalye); chryseis Verity, 1911 (the Upper Priamurye) are very
close to tyche.

101. Colias nastes Boisduval, 1832.
TYPE LOCALITY: the Labrador Peninsula.
RANGE: The north of East Siberia, of the Far East (including
Kamchatka), and of North America. A local species.
HABITAT: shingle banks, steppefied south-exposed bank slopes,
alpinotype meadows and montane tundras.
FLIGHT PERIOD: July/middle August.
PREIMAGINAL PHASES: studied in North America (Scott, 1986).
Foodplants: Astragalus, Oxytropis, Hedysarum, and also Salix arctica.
A biennial species. Larva: dark-green with small black dots, two
yellowish streaks along the back and a white line on either side;
hibernates twice, in early and the last instars.
PECULIAR TRAITS OF IMAGO: F.w.l.: 18-26 mm. The wing upperside is more
strongly suffused with dark and greenish scales than in C. tyche, the
light spots on the border are smaller and do not fuse to the ground
colour. The fore wing underside is ash-grey, the hind wing underside
is yellowish-green, with a silvery discal spot ringed with pink or
reddish rim.
GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION: In the Suntar-Khayata mountain range and the
basins of Yana and Indigirka Rivers the subspecies jacutica Kurenzov,
1970 (= jacuttica Ferris, 1985; = jacuticola Weiss et Mracek, 1989) is
distributed, which is characterized by a smoky-brown wing upperside
with a wide border with contrasted white spots on both fore and hind
wings; from Chukotka and the Kolyma basin the subspecies sibirica
Kurenzov, 1970, has been described, the name of which was preoccupied
by Colias aurora sibirica Lederer, 1853, so, this name was replaced by
us with the name dezhnevi Korshunov, 1995 (etymology: Semen Dezhnev -
a Russian kazak who first sailed round the Chukotka Peninsula). In
this subspecies the wing upperside is pale-yellowish-green in males
and pale-yellow in females, on the fore wing the outer border is split
by a row of large light spots into two parallel fragments.

---end quote---

The above quotation is from the English translation of the book [The
Butterflies (Rhopalocera) of the Asian part of Russia] by Korshunov &
Gorbunov
(1995, 202 pp.). The author of the translation is O. Kosterin and the
full text (with corrections and additions), which I highly recommend
to anyone with an interest in this kind of problems or just in
Palearctic butterflies, can be found at:

http://genome6.cpmc.columbia.edu/~kosterin/korgor/index.htm

Hope it can add some clarity to the nastes-tyche problem. Apart from
this, O. Kosterin's site is full of mouth-watering live photos of
Siberian butterflies, many of which few have seen, let alone
photographed. Bot apetit!

Zdravko Kolev

 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl 
 

 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl