RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Siberian Department Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals Ural Department Institute of Ecology of Plants and Animals YURIY KORSHUNOV and PAVEL GORBUNOV B U T T E R F L I E S OF T H E A S I A N P A R T O F R U S S I A a handbook MOSCOW RODINA 1994 PREFACE The study of butterflies in the Asian part of Russia has been started in the second half of XVIII century. The first butterfly described from this territory, namely, from Primorye, was Polygonia c-aureum (Linnaeus, 1767). The second and third species were stated from Altai, they were Colias aurora (Esper, 1781) and Parnassius phoebus (Fabricius, 1793). Several years later another butterfly, Erebia theano (Tauscher, 1806), was firstly found in Altai, and a number of species: Erebia brimo (Boeber, 1809), E. neriene (Boeber, 1809), Boeberia parmenio (Boeber, 1809), Clossiana tritonia (Boeber, 1812), Colias tyche Boeber, 1812 became known from Pribaikalye. In XIX century Ivan Esscholz, John Boisduval, Edward Menetries, Edward Eversmann, Nikolay Ershov, Otto Bremer, Sergey Alpheraky, Grigoriy Grum-Grshimailo, and other naturalists and lepidopterologists discovered dozens of new species and compiled the first lists of the fauna of South Ural, the forest-steppe zone of Siberia, and the Amur basin which since those times were little updated. To 1900 year 357 species were known for the Asian Russia. At the end of XIX and the beginning of the XX century the local universities and museums and, later, research institutes of the modern type organized expeditions to more hard accessible northern regions of Ural, Siberia, and the Far East. The advancement of knowledge on butterflies of these regions was much promoted by amateur collectionists. Nevertheless, the data on this vast but scarcely populated area are still fragmentary. This book is based on the long-term collections and observations by the authors in different regions of the Asian Russia: by Yuriy Petrovich Korshunov (Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals, Novosibirsk) - since 1948 in the Upper, Middle, and Lower Priobye, the Yamal Peninsula, Altai, the Kuznetskiy Alatau Mts., the Sayans; by Pavel Yunievich Gorbunov (Institute of Ecology of Plants and Animals, Ekaterinburg) - since 1982 in South, Middle, North, and Polar Ural, the Yamal Peninsula, Altai, Yakutia, Primorye. While preparing the book the authors had the possibility to work with numerous museum and private collections. The most interesting were the materials collected for Zoological Museum of IEPA by V.V. Dubatolov (Novosibirsk) in Altai, Yakutia, Zabaikalye, Primorye; by O.E.Kosterin (Novosibirsk) in Altai, Tuva, the Magadan region, Kamchatka, by V.V. Ivonin (Novosibirsk) in the Novosibirsk region, Pribaikalye, Primorye, and also some materials by E.V. Novomodnyy (Khabaovsk) from Khabarovskiy Kray, by V.V. Palekha (the settlement Karamken, the Magadan region) from the Magadan region, by A.N. Strel'tsov (Blagoveshchensk) from Priamrye, V.G. Barkhatov (Chelyabinsk), M.I. Prokofiev (SanctPetersburg), A. Matveev (Moscow) from Altai, by Yu.N. Glushchenko (Ussuriysk) from Yakutia and Primorye, V.N. Olshvang (Ekaterinburg) from Ural. The authors express their sincere gratitude to all of them, and also to A.V. Sviridov (Moscow) for the permission and help in the work with the collection of A.V. Tsvetaev. The text of the book is arranged as follows. The main volume is occupied by short sketches on more than 400 species of butterflies known or once reported from Ural, Siberia, and the Far East of Russia. Each sketch opens with the Latin name of a species after which its main recently used synonyms are listed, if any, and its type locality is specified, this information being collected by Yu.P. Korshunov. The first paragraph of the sketch contains the data on geographic distribution, biotopic preference, flight period, and, in some cases, interesting peculiarities of behaviour of the imagines, which were accumulated by both authors. A substantial help of V.V. Dubatolov in the assessment of Lycaenidae, especially of the tribe Theclini, is greatly appreciated. In the second paragraph the life history of the species is outlined and the preimaginal stages are briefly described. For some species it is made for the first time on the base of observations by the authors or other naturalists; however, taking into account the shortage of data on the preimaginal stages from the territory considered, the information was adopted from Japanese, European, or American literature sources, such as the books by K. Eckstein (1913), K. Lampert (1913), E.Nikulescu (1963, 1965), D. Scott (1986), J. Moucha (1979), and some others (this work being done mostly by Yu.P. Korshunov). Especially helpful were the books "The life Histories of Butterflies in Japan", Osaka, 1982-1984, with observations of H. Fukuda, E. Hama, T. Kuzuya, A. Takahashi, M. Takahashi, B. Tanaka, H. Tanaka, M. Wakabayashi, Ya. Natanabe, and also "The Butterflies of Fennoscandia". The foodplants are enumerated, mostly on the genus level, with reference to their presence in the Asian Russia. At the end of the paragraph the minimum of the key characters necessary for species identification is given (prepared by Yu.P.Gorbunov). The third paragraph contains the list of subspecies ranging in the territory considered and, in many cases, the systematic notes, this part of the work belongs to Yu.P.Korshunov. Besides, in many cases information is given on the person whose surnames were used to derive the Latin names of butterfly species. The peculiarities of the geography and Nature of the territory considered is briefly outlined in the sketch "the Asian Russia". At the end of the book a glossary of special terms and three indexes are added. The systematic list of the genera of the foodplants of the larvae gives a clear presentation of a trophic connections of our butterflies. The index of latin names of butterfly species contains references on the numerals of species in the text and illustrating tables. The album is illustrated with ... slides of butterflies taken in natural habitats and with 36 views of characteristic landscapes, ...coloured tables of the collected materials and illustrate almost all of the mentioned species, three tables contain the drawings of the male genitalia made by V.V. Ivonin and P.Yu. Gorbunov. The authors express their special gratitude to O.E.Kosterin for translating the book into English and for critical notes on the entire text, and to all the photographers granting their slides for the album. While preparing the book the authors receive a great help through consulting Otakar Kudrna (Germany), Eugene Niculescu (Romania), Ulf Eitchberger (FRG)< Midori Kogure (JApan), Tomoo Fujioka (Japan), Kenelm Philip (Alaska), James Troubridge (Canada), to whom the authors are deeply indebted.