[leps-talk] Lycaena 'phlaeas'

[Grkovich, Alex]

I have specimens from the Loire Valley, France and from a mountain meadow
near Banja Luka, Bosnia, which were taken durng the month of September. I
believe that on both, the HW tails are quite prominent. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Guy_VdP at t-online.de [SMTP:Guy_VdP at t-online.de]
> Sent:	Monday, April 15, 2002 7:16 PM
> To:	Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX
> Cc:	Leps-L
> Subject:	Re: [leps-talk] Lycaena 'phlaeas'
> 
> Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX schrieb:
> > I agree that 'phlaeas' as an introduced organism to 
> > eastern North America is 
> > an interesting 'idea'. As Ken has pointed out there is 
> 
> I read somewhere - I think in a (translated) copy of Higgins' & Riley's
> 'Guide to the leps of Britain and Europe' that _Papilio machaon_
> 'might' be imported to north America as well. If you're interested I'll
> search for it.
> 
> Back to _L. phlaeas_:
> 
> Belgian _phlaeas_ differ from the scandinavian ones in that the colour
> of the hindwing underside is different.
> *But* this might be because of the temperatures out there, Belgium is
> rather temperate, Scandinavia (and if I recall well, the 'scandinavian'
> subspecies is supposed to live N of the Polar circle) is rather cold.
> The tails of the S European (I have a nice series from La Palma -
> Canary Islands and some from Turkey) specimens are indeed longer, but
> sometimes - in warmer summers (it's easier to collect mushrooms in
> Belgium) the 2nd generation in Belgium also shows *signs* of these
> tails. 
> These *may very well* depend on the temperatures during development.
> There is also the form _caeruleopunctata_ Staudinger: a nice form, with
> blue spots on ups of hindw. - *maybe* caused by higher humidity and
> temperatures.
> I have read some articles in Atalanta about _phlaeas_ being a wanderer
> - this would of course have a very positive effect on the gene flow.
> Though Leraut lists _aestivus_ Zeller, 1847 as a subspecies occurring
> in France (no type location mentioned, but presumably S.E. Europe),
> several other publications treat all populations on mainland Europe +
> the British Isles + N. Africa as belonging to the nominotypical
> subspecies(_phlaeas_).
> And even though the French like to believe that they live in a big
> country, if _phlaeas_ is a wanderer, it would not be big enough to hold
> two ssp.
> 
> Guy.
> 
> 
> > substantiate such an 'idea'. Just as I have not been able 
> > to find a solid 
> > argument to support the interpretation/assumption/idea 
> > that we even have 
> > phlaeas anywhere in North America. The eastern temperate 
> > North American 
> > hypophlaeas differ not only in the color of the ventral 
> > hindwing from 
> > temperate European butterflies but also differ in a 
> > structural character, 
> > namely the absence of tails which are prevalent in the 
> > later broods of the 
> > european entity. There could easily be other differences, 
> > I have not looked 
> > closely at these critters. Nothing has ever been 
> > published that I can recall 
> > to demonstrate that all of our North American taxa are 
> > even the same 
> > species, let alone the same species as the European bugs. 
> > The arctic beasts 
> > on both continents are quite different from the more 
> > southern butterflies so 
> > at the moment I view the present published taxonomy as 
> > guesswork, a 
> > down-to-earth descriptor for lumping things on the basis 
> > of superficial 
> > similarity and with disregard for the differing 
> > phenotypes; biologies and 
> > ecologies of these butterflies which function as distinct 
> > biological species 
> > in nature and which are the same taxonomic species only 
> > in the minds of 
> > those who have published their interpretations on this 
> > group of butterlfies. 
> > This is just one of many things that need research rather 
> > than continued 
> > parroting of old published interpretations. Viewing the 
> > arctic bugs, western 
> > cordilleran bugs and the temperate eastern bugs as 
> > distinct species is just 
> > as reasonable, if not more reasonable, interpretation 
> > than calling them all 
> > the same species because somebody said so many years ago.
> > 
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
> > Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management
> > 845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
> > Phone 250-365-8610
> > Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca       
> > http://www.env.gov.bc.ca
> > 
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