Journal articles on the topic 'Parnassius mnemosyne'

Information is presented on incidence of the Clouded Apollo Parnassius mnemosyne in the Republic of Mordovia (Russia). Over the period 2006–2016, more than 30 sites of the species were identified. The main increase in the number from 2 to 22 specimens per 1km of route was observed in 2006–2011. Biotopes of the species, fodder plants of the imago, and measures for species protection are described.

Recent multi-locus phylogenetic studies repeatedly showed that what was thought to be the Clouded Apollo butterfly Parnassius mnemosyne (Linnaeus, 1758) represents a cryptic species complex. This complex contains at least three distant species-level phylogenetic lineages. Here, we compile a set of morphology- and DNA-based evidences supporting the distinctiveness of two species in this group, i.e. P. mnemosyne s. str. and P. nebrodensis Turati, 1907 stat. rev. These species can be distinguished from each other based on a combination of diagnostic characters in the male genitalia structure, wing scale patterns, and the forewing venation. The species status of P. nebrodensis is supported based on unique nucleotide substitutions in the mitochondrial (COI, ND1, and ND5) and nuclear (Wg and EF-1a) genes. P. nebrodensis is endemic to the Western Mediterranean Region. This species shares a disjunctive range through the Pyrenees, Western and Central Alps, Apennines, and the Nebrodi and Madonie mountains on Sicily. Altogether 38 nominal taxa initially described as P. mnemosyne subspecies are considered here to be junior synonyms of P. nebrodensis. At first glance, P. nebrodensis can be assessed as an endangered species due to its restricted distribution, narrow range of habitats, and ongoing population decline. Isolated populations of this species scattered through mountain ranges need special management and conservation efforts.

AbstractMorphological variation in Parnassius mnemosyne (Linnaeus, 1758) was studied using 20 measurements of the wing shape, venation and coloration in males and females of eastern Fennoscandian populations. The type specimens were analysed. The results were related to the previous subspecific division proposed by Bryk. The results suggest that the type specimens (nominate ssp.) can be classified together with the populations from southwestern Finland. The populations of the Åland archipelago seem to form a distinctive group (ssp. ugrofennica Bryk), differing from both the nominate subspecies and the Swedish ssp. romani Bryk. The results on the Karelian material agree well with Bryk's classification (ssp. karjala, ssp. poppii). The only Finnish inland population at Somero differs only slightly from other SW Finnish populations. The loss of populations in Finland has not resulted in losses of taxa at a subspecific level.

The name nebrodensis Turati is shown to be unavailable and the first available name for the species is chosen by invoking the First Reviser Principle under the ICZN Code as Parnassius turatii Fruhstorfer, 1908. Rothschild was determined to be the first author to confer availability on the name nebrodensis by application of the Code.

Here we report the strong decline of a population of the endangered species Parnassius mnemosyne (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) in the National Park of Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna (Italy). We compared historical presence data (before 1969) with current data from two years of monitoring (2018–2019) and provided evidence of a drastic reduction in the number of sites inhabited by the species. A preliminary assessment suggested that the population of P. mmemosyne occurring in the Park is limited to a few individuals. We argue that the population of this iconic and charismatic butterfly is at the verge of extinction in this National Park, probably because of a combination of habitat loss (i.e. decrease in size and number of areas of open grassland on the mountain belt) and climatic changes. Being one of the few populations of P. mnemosyne in the Northern Apennines, the implementation of protection measures is a high conservation priority. Several other butterfly species on the Italian mountains that are facing the same survival challenges would also benefit from the establishment of conservation actions aimed at improving habitat quality for P. mnemosyne. Present article is meant to call for action researchers, stakeholders, and especially decision-makers in order to increase the efforts to upturn the evident decline in abundance of this population. Key words: biodiversity conservation, butterflies, habitat loss, habitat management, Lepidoptera, Parnassinae

This article documents 91 species-group names of Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) for which either primary or secondary type material is present in the collections of the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh. The describers and the 76 nominal taxa they descibed are as follows: H. Druce (1846–1913) Euphaedra COOKSONI, Mycalesis HAROLDI; H.H. Druce (1869–1922) Cyclopides COOKSONI, Spindasis KALLIMON; H.J. Elwes (1846–1922) Parnassius delphius ssp. INFERNALIS; J.C. Fabricius (1745–1808) Papilio COCALIA (“neotype”), Papilio MARDANIA (“neotype”); H. Fruhstorfer (1866–1922) Parnassius mnemosyne ssp. MELAINA; D.R. Gifford (1918–1981) Leptomyrina HANDMANI, Alaena LAMBORNI, Deudorix (Virachola) MAGDA, Papilio ophidicephalus ssp. MKUWADZI; J.B. Godart (1775–1825) Idea AGELIA, Danais ALCATHOE, Cethosia ALIPHERA, Danais ALOPIA, Danais BAUDINIANA, Papilio BITIAS, Argynnis BRIAREA, Heliconia CLEOBAEA, Danais CLEOPHILE, Danais CLEOTHERA, Heliconia CYRBIA, Pieris DOXO, Pieris EPICHARIS, Pieris ERIPHIA, Heliconia ETHILLA, Heliconia EUCLEA, Papilio EURYMAS, Pieris GIDICA, Argynnis HEGEMONE, Satyrus HYSIUS, Papilio IMERIUS, Acraea JANISCA, Pieris JOSEPHINA, Vanessa LAODORA, Papilio LEUCASPIS, Papilio LYCORAEUS, Vanessa LYTREA, Heliconia MEGARA, Heliconia MELPHIS, Libythea MYRRHA, Acraea OZOMENE, Pieris PHISADIA, Papilio POLYMETUS, Danais PROTHOE, Argynnis PYGMAEA, Pieris PYRO, Pieris SALACIA, Acraea SERVONA, Papilio TEMENES, Papilio TEREAS, Libythea TERENA, Biblis THADANA, Argynnis THAROSSA, Papilio TRIOPAS, Pieris VENILIA, Vanessa VULCANIA, Acraea ZETHEA, Acraea ZIDORA, Acraea ZOSTERIA; C.W.N. Holmes (1916–2018) Bebearia paludicola ssp. BLANDI, Bebearia cocalioides ssp. HECQI, Bebearia orientis ssp. MALAWIENSIS, Bebearia PALUDICOLA; E.G. Honrath (1837–1893) Parnassius bremeri ssp. GRAESERI, Parnassius nordmanni var. MINIMA; W.J. Kaye (1875–1967) Hesperocharis LAMONTI; F. Moore (1830–1907) Neptis ADARA, Abisara ANGULATA, Lebadea ATTENUATA, Ixias CITRINA, Euploea LIMBORGII, Papilio ONPAPE, Cirrhochroa SURYA; W.F.H. Rosenberg & G. Talbot (1914) Dismorphia orise ssp. DENIGRATA. The secondary type material (number of species in brackets) originates from H. Carcasson (1), M. Cock (1), J. B. Godart (7), W. J. Kaye (1), O. Kudrna (3) and M. B. Usher (2).

Sex ratio biases in animal populations influence the genetically effective population size, and thus are of interest in conservation. A butterfly group in which many authors report biases towards males is the genusParnassiusLatreille, 1804 (Papilionidae). Using a vulnerable woodland species,P. mnemosyne, we carried out a detailed marking campaign designed to eliminate biases towards individual sexes on marking. We then estimated the numbers of males and females using constrained linear models (CLMs) (Cormack-Jolly-Seber and Jolly-Seber in MARK); compared details of mobility between males and females using the Virtual Migration (VM) model; and built CLMs containing weather variables in order to directly assess weather effects on survival. The estimated population size was 4000 adults, with a male: female sex ratio of 1.5-1.6. Both daily and average catchability were higher for males, while the residence values (i.e., survival) were higher for females. Migration parameters were similar for the sexes, with slightly lower male survival within patches and slightly higher male emigration. CLMs with weather substituted for or added to marking days performed worse than models with mere marking days, and although weather affected the sexes differently, males still retained lower survival. The surplus of adult males in the studied population ofP. mnemosynewas real, not caused by increased male survival or a difference in mobility. Therefore, the bias toward males must appear prior to adult emergence, probably during the larval period.

The first regional checklist of moths and butterflies of Arkhangelsk oblast of Russia includes 1,036 species (538 species of microlepidoptera and 498 species of macrolepidoptera), 496 of which have been found in the oblast for the first time. The most interesting records include Gnorimoschema robustella, Caryocolum leucomelanella, Dichrorampha sequana, D. uralensis, Neptis rivularis and Melitaea phoebe. We also discovered several populations of Parnassius mnemosyne in the southern part of the oblast. The fauna of Arkhangelsk oblast appears poorer than the fauna of Northern Ural Mts. but still includes some Siberian taiga species which do not reach Fennoscandia. Also, the distribution limits of several species extend further north in Arkhangelsk oblast than in the more western parts of Europe.We estimate that 500 to 800 species remain to be found in the study region.

Clouded Apollo (Parnassius mnemosyne) has been occupying three separate areas in Estonia and has increased its abundance and population area remarkably during the last 30 years. Since the butterfly was first identified in the northeast (1878) and southeast (1984) of Estonia, the species has expanded its distribution with overall expansion distances of approximately 135 and 100 km, respectively. In western Estonia, the butterfly was found locally on the island of Saaremaa in 1922–1973. Today, the butterfly is most likely extinct there. The occupational trend of the species in Estonia is not in accordance with its general trend in Europe, where it has shown a continuous decline. We suggest that in Estonia there is a suitable landscape structure with the presence of suitable landscape elements and still enough semi-natural grasslands that are suitable habitats for the butterfly even despite the fact that the traditional extensive agricultural practice in general is decreasing in Estonia.

In this paper we present the results of a survey of three butterfly families: Hesperiidae, Pieridae and Papilionidae, in the Mountain massif Shkoza in central Kosovo, conducted from May to October 2016. Among 29 recorded butterfly species in this survey, 14 (48%) species belong to Pieridae, 10 (24%) to Hesperiidae and 4 (13.7%) to Papilionidae. Recorded species belong to five faunal elements according to Kudrna, Pennestorfer & Lux (2015) (KPS): 14 are Euro-Siberian (ES), 10 are Euro-Oriental (EO), two species are Mediterranean (EM), two are Holarctic (Hol) and one Boreo-Montane. Regarding the IUCN Red list status (van Swaay et al., 2010), three species Carcharodus floccifera (Zeller, 1847), Thymelicus acteon (Rottemburg, 1775) and Parnassius mnemosyne (Linnaeus, 1758) are Near Threatened (NT), while the other 27 are of Least Concern (LC). From our results we can conclude that the massif Shkoza has a well developed butterfly fauna, however further research is needed to have a complete picture of its diversity.

Weather conditions fundamentally affect the activity of short-lived insects. Annual variation in weather is therefore likely to be an important determinant of their between-year variation in dispersal, but conclusive empirical studies are lacking. We studied whether the annual variation of dispersal can be explained by the flight season's weather conditions in a Clouded Apollo ( Parnassius mnemosyne ) metapopulation. This metapopulation was monitored using the mark–release–recapture method for 12 years. Dispersal was quantified for each monitoring year using three complementary measures: emigration rate (fraction of individuals moving between habitat patches), average residence time in the natal patch, and average distance moved. There was much variation both in dispersal and average weather conditions among the years. Weather variables significantly affected the three measures of dispersal and together with adjusting variables explained 79–91% of the variation observed in dispersal. Different weather variables became selected in the models explaining variation in three dispersal measures apparently because of the notable intercorrelations. In general, dispersal rate increased with increasing temperature, solar radiation, proportion of especially warm days, and butterfly density, and decreased with increasing cloudiness, rainfall, and wind speed. These results help to understand and model annually varying dispersal dynamics of species affected by global warming.

Butterflies are highly sensitive to habitat and climate changes, and are recognized as important indicators of the state of the environment. Therefore their diversity needs to be studied on a regional scale in order to take actions for their protection by national and international legislation. Here, the results of a butterfly survey in the northeastern part of Kosovo are presented. A total of 93 species were recorded from 2014 to 2017 in six localities, including seven Hesperiidae, four Papilionidae, 15 Pieridae, 25 Lycenidae, 41 Nymphalidae and a single species of Riodinidae. Six of them are listed in the Red List of European Butterflies, all as Near Threatened: Cupido decoloratus (Staudinger, 1886), Pseudophilotes vicrama (Moore, 1865), Hipparchia statilinus (Hufnagel, 1766), Melitaea aurelia (Nickerl, 1850), Melitaea diamina (Lang, 1789) and Parnassius mnemosyne (Linnaeus, 1758). Five species are listed in the recently published Red book of the fauna of Kosovo: two species as Vulnerable (VU), Lycaena dispar (Haworth, 1802) and Thecla betulae (Linnaeus, 1758) and three as Near Threatened, Cupido decoloratus (Staudinger, 1886), Papilio machaon (Linnaeus, 1758) and Zerynthia cerysi (Godart, 1824). From a zoogeographical point of view, the reported species represent eight faunal elements: 51 Euro-Siberian (ES), 27 Euro-Oriental (EO), six Euro-Meridional (EM), five Holarctic (Hol), two Tropical (Tro), one Boreo-Montane (BM), one Cosmopolitan (Cos) and one Mediterranean (Med). We conclude that 93 species of butterfly fauna recorded in this survey represent a relatively high diversity, but further surveys need to be organized in order to gather more data.

The Young Grundtvig and NorwayBy Gustav AlbeckThis article is a revised and extended version of the lecture given by Professor Albeck on April 30th 1984 at the annual general meeting of the Grundtvig Society in Oslo. It describes Grundtvig’s close relationship to a number of Norwegian friends he made during his residence at the Walkendorf hostel in Copenhagen in the years 1808-11; this circle of friends lasted and widened to include other Norwegians in his later life.Grundtvig was 67 before he set foot on Norwegian soil, but from his early youth he had familiarised himself with the Norwegian landscape and history through Norwegian literature. His feeling of kinship with the spirit and history of Norway was for a time stronger than his consciousness of being Danish. In his youth Norway and the Norwegians played a major role in opinion-making in Denmark, and in this respect Grundtvig was no different from his contemporary Danes. But the idea of Norway’s future continued to concern him long after his youth was over. The lecture, however, confines itself to the way certain Norwegians regarded Grundtvig between 1808 and 1811.When Grundtvig returned to Copenhagen from Langeland in 1808 he had no friends in the capital. But at the Walkendorf hostel he met first and foremost Svend B. Hersleb, a Norwegian theologian, to whom he addressed a jocular poem in the same year, revealing that Grundtvig now felt himself young again and among young people following his unrequited passion for Constance Leth. Otherwise we have only a few witnesses to this first period of happiness, with Grundtvig gaining a foothold on the Danish parnassus through his first Norse Mythology and Scenes from Heroic Life in the North.The fullest accounts of Grundtvig’s relationship to the Norwegians in the period following his nervous breakdown and religious breakthrough in 1810 come from the journals of the Norwegian-Danish dean and poet, Frederik Schmidt, made during various trips to Denmark. These journals were published in extenso between 1966 and 1985 in three volumes, the last of which includes a commentary by the editors and a postscript by Gustav Albeck. Many of the valuable notes about Grundtvig are repeated in the lecture. Frederik Schmidt was the son of a Norwegian bishop; he became a rural dean and later a member of the first National Assembly at Eids voll in 1814. He was a Norwegian patriot but loyal to the Danes and in fact returned to Denmark in 1820. His descriptions of Grundtvig’s conversations with Niels Treschow, the Norwegian-born Professor of Philosophy at Copenhagen University, give an authentic and concentrated picture of Grundtvig’s reflections on his conversion to a strict Lutheran faith, which for a time threatened to hinder his development as a secular writer. Schmidt found their way of presenting their differing views “very interesting and human”, and Grundtvig’s Christian faith “warm, intense and sincere”. “In the animated features of his dark eyes and pale face there is something passionate yet also gentle”. When Schmidt himself talked to Grundtvig about a current paper which stated that in early Christianity there was a fusion between Greek thought and oriental feeling, Grundtvig exclaimed, “Yet another Christianity without Christ!” A draft of a reply to one of Schmidt’s articles shows that at that point, April 1811, Grundtvig did not believe in the working of “the living word” in its secular meaning. The draft was not printed and Grundtvig does not appear to have discussed it with Schmidt. There is a very precise description of Grundtvig’s appearance: “There is... something confused in his eyes; he sometimes closes them after a tiring conversation, as if he wants to pull his thoughts together again.” Schmidt in no way agrees with Grundtvig’s point of view, which he partly puts down to “disappointed hopes, humbled pride and the persecution... he has been subjected to...” But he does find another important explanation in Grundtvig’s “need for reassuring knowledge” and his conviction “that the misery of the age can only be helped by true religious feeling”.There are also descriptions of Grundtvig in a more jovial mood, for example together with Professor George Sverdrup, where Grundtvig repeated some rather unflattering accounts of the playwright Holberg’s behaviour towards a couple of professors who were colleagues. The same evening he and Schmidt set about attacking Napoleon while Treschow and Sverdrup defended him. Schmidt considered Grundtvig’s little book, New Year’s Eve, “devout to the point of pietist sentiment”, but thought the error lay rather in Grundtvig’s head than his heart. Lovely is the Clear Blue Night (Dejlig er den himmel blaa), published in April 1811 was even read aloud by Schmidt to a woman poet; but he criticised The Anholt-Campaign.After 1814 Schmidt adopted a somewhat cooler tone towards Grundtvig’s books. He was unable to go along with Grundtvig’s talk of a united Denmark- Norway as his fatherland. He criticised the poems Grundtvig published in his periodical, Danevirke, including even The Easter Lily for its “vulgar language”, which Grundtvig appeared to confuse with a true “language of power”. It is impossible to prove any close relationship between Schmidt and Grundtvig, but he was an attentive observer when they met in Copenhagen in 1811.With the opening of the Royal Frederik University in Christiania in 1813 Grundtvig became separated from his Norwegian friends, as Hersleb, Treschow and Sverdrup were all appointed to the new Norwegian university. They were keen for Grundtvig to join them as Professor of History. Sverdrup in particular was captivated by his personality, and in a letter dated April 21st 1812 he informed Grundtvig that he was among the candidates for the post proposed by the commission to the King. But Grundtvig himself hesitated; he felt “calm and quietly happy” in Udby “as minister for simple Christians”. To his friend, the Norwegian-born Poul Dons, he wrote, “... something in me draws me up there, something keeps me down here.” The fact that he never got the job was in many ways his own fault. His World Chronicle (1812) could not but offend scholars of a rationalist approach, in particular the prediction at the end of the book about the new university’s effect. It is linked to Grundtvig’s interpretation (1810) of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation, which are seen as a prediction of the seven great churches in the historical advance of Christianity.“It was an idea,” says Albeck, “which in spite of its obvious irrationality never left Grundtvig, and as late as 1860 it found poetic form in the great poem, The Pleiades of Christendom (Christenhedens Syvstjerne).” Grundtvig “was in no doubt that the sixth church was the Nordic, and that it would grow out of the Norwegian university, the new Wittenberg.” In 1810 Grundtvig felt himself “chosen to be the forerunner of a new reformer, a new Johan Huss before a new Luther.” From a scholarly point of view there is no reason to reproach the Danish selection panel for the negative judgment they reached regarding Grundtvig’s qualifications as a historian. His name was not even mentioned in the appointments for the new professorships. He had caused quite a stir not long before by writing a birthday poem for the King in which he directly expressed his wish that the new university might become a Wittenberg. The poem took the form of a series of accusations against Norway and the Norwegians, and in particular against Nicolai Wergeland, who in a prize-winning essay on the Norwegian university entitled Mnemosyne had stuck a few needles into Denmark and the Danes. Grundtvig accused the Norwegians of ingratitude to Denmark and unchristian pride. Even his good friend Hersleb reacted to such an attack.From the diaries of the Norwegian, Claus Pavels, we know how the Norwegian poet, Jonas Rein, wrote and told Grundtvig that “a greater meekness towards people with a different opinion would be more fitting for a teacher of Christianity.” Grundtvig replied that he had had to speak the truth loud and clear in a degenerate age. The Bishop of Bergen, Nordal Brun, also considered Grundtvig’s views as expressed to the King “misplaced and insulting”. He was particularly hurt that Norway “should have to thank Denmark for its Christianity and protestantism”. When Grundtvig printed the poem in Little Songs (Kv.dlinger) in 1815, Nicolai Wergeland was moved to write Denmark’s Political Crimes against the Kingdom of Norway, published in 1816.For Grundtvig’s Norwegian friends it was a matter of regret that he did not come to Norway, not least for Stener Stenersen, who in 1814 became a lecturer and in 1818 a professor of theology at the Norwegian university. His correspondence with Grundtvig from 1813 is now regarded as a valuable source for Grundtvig’s view of Christianity at that time. In his diary entry for August 27th 1813 Pavels notes that Stenersen had proposed that the Society for the Wellbeing of Norway should use all its influence to get Grundtvig to Norway. In his proposition Stenersen asked who possessed such unity and purity of thought as to be able to understand fully the importance of scholarship; he himself had only one candidate - Grundtvig. From a contemporary standpoint he had won his way to the Christian faith. But the rationalist Pavels, the source of our information, was far from convinced that “no man in the whole of Norway” possessed these abilities in equal measure to Grundtvig”. He therefore had misgivings about “requesting him as Norway’s last and only deliverer”.When Grundtvig heard of Stenersen’s proposition he sought an audience with the King on September 8th at which he clearly expressed his desire to become Professor of History at the Norwegian University. Two Danish professors, Børge Thorlacius and Laurids Engelsto. found it strange, however, that Treschow, Sverdrup and Hersleb could “deify Grundtvig”. And his great wish was never fulfilled. Nonetheless he did not give up. On November 15th he saw that the post of curate was being advertised at Aggers church near Christiania and applied for the job. From his book Roskilde Rhymes (published on February 1st 1814) it is clear that he believed that it was there that his great work was to be accomplished. But in those very days Frederik VI was signing the peace of Kiel which would separate Norway from Denmark, and Grundtvig from his wish.In the preface to Danevirke (dated May 1817) he realised that he had deserved the scorn of the Norwegians, for he had expected too much of them. But he never forgot his Norwegian friends. He named one of his sons after Svend Hersleb, and another son married Stenersen’s daughter. When he himself visited Norway in 1851 he was welcomed like a prince.

A lepkék jó modelljei lehetnek a táplálékforrás-választás tanulmányozásának, mert a kifejlett egyedek válogatnak a nektárforrás-kínálatból és képesek alkalmazkodni időben változó táplálék-forrásaikhoz. Célunk a kis apollólepke (Parnassius mnemosyne (LINNAEUS, 1758)) nektárnövényfaj-választását befolyásoló virágtulajdonságok megismerése volt. A vizsgált populációk egyedeit jelölés-visszalátás módszerrel mintavételeztük 5, majd 2 éven keresztül két egymáshoz közeli réten a Visegrádi-hegységben. A virággyakoriságot bejárásos módszerrel becsültük. A virágtulajdonságokat a Biolflor adatbázisból gyűjtöttük. Az évenkénti viráglátogatási arány változott a növényfajok között. Nagy változatosságot találtunk az elérhető növények tulajdonságaiban és a virágkínálatban az egyes évek és a két rét között. A lepkék választását a virágok gyakorisága, színe és típusa, valamint a rovar-beporzás szerepe befolyásolta az egyik, míg csupán a virággyakoriság és a virágszín a másik réten. A növények beporzóik választását befolyásoló tulajdonságai egymástól valószínűleg nem függetlenek. A viráglátogatási mintázat mindkét élőhelyen arra utal, hogy a kis apollólepkék választanak elérhető forrásaik közül. A két rét populációi közötti különbség azt sugallja, hogy a választás környezetfüggő. Valószínű, hogy az energiabefektetés-arányosan kinyerhető legtöbb és/vagy legjobb nektárt nyújtó fajokat látogatják a leggyakrabban. Ahhoz, hogy egy élőhely megfelelő legyen egy adott lepkefaj számára, elsődleges szempont a lárvális tápnövény jelenléte, ám az imágók táplálékát biztosító nektárnövények kellő mennyiségű előfordulása is nélkülözhetetlen lehet.

AbstractDuring a mark-recapture study of Parnassius mnemosyne butterfly, we recorded incidence of females bearing or not bearing sphragis, a waxy structure delivered by males during copulation and preventing subsequent inseminations by other males. Despite the common belief that sphragis ensures monopolisation of females, we observed that 74 out of 579 marked females did not bear sphragis at a time of capture. We also recorded five instances of sphragis loss and one female that lost and subsequently re-acquired the structure. A sphragis thus does not represent a reliable indicator of females’ mating status in P. mnemosyne. Repeated inseminations occur in this species and might buffer some extremely small populations against loss of within-population genetic variation. However, the proportion of sphragis-free females increased with season, and it remains to be ascertained to what extend is this caused by sphragis loss in previously inseminated females, and to which this is an outcome of earlier reproductive asynchrony, or early emergence of males that renders some of the late-emerging females unmated.

The immature stages of the Clouded Apollo (Parnassius mnemosyne) are assumed to be thermophilic due to the possible time limitations and variable weather conditions during their development. Thus, the degree of canopy coverage may affect habitat use by the species. We explored the spatial distribution of larvae and the development time of pupae under variable canopy coverage conditions. Larvae were most abundant in the areas exposed to direct sunlight, although the last instar larvae are mobile. Larvae also basked under litter between their for aging periods, probably to enhance digestion and the food intake rate. Moreover, pupal developmentwas retarded by increasing canopy coverage. Prolonged pupal development and larval avoidance of Corydalis growths under tree canopies indicate that the species suffers from overgrowing and consequently increasing canopy coverage.