FAMILIA RIODINIDAE Grote, 1895

  Small or intermediate in size butterflies displaying a great variety of 
wing shape and colouration. The world fauna includes more than 1400 
species ranging mostly in Neotropic region, ten species ranging in 
Palearctic and one - in Russia.                        


GENUS Hamearis Hubner, [1819].
Type species: Papilio lucina Linnaeus, 1758.

  A monotypic genus.


Hamearis lucina (Linnaeus, 1758). 

TYPE LOCALITY: Sweden.

RANGE: Europe (except for the North and North-East), Asia Minor. Some 
records of this species in the region of the Il'menskiy nature reserve (S 
Ural) are known but need in confirmation. 

HABITAT: forest meaadows. 

FLIGHT PERIOD: May. 

PREIMAGINAL PHASES: studied in Europe (Eckstein, 1913, and others.) 
Foodplants: Rumex, Lisimachia, Primula officinalis. Eggs: round, 
greenish-yellow or white, later become greyish with a semitransparent 
cover through which a brown head of the larva is seen; laid singly or in 
groups by up to 30 ones on leaf underside. Mature larva: woodlouse-like, 
yellow-brown, reddish-brown, or, rarely, greyish, with a row of dark 
spots along the back, which are usually fused into a contiguous stripe, 
and a yellowish line above the spiracles; on the sides there are reddish 
or yellowish warts set with fine hairs; the head is pale-brown or 
reddish; the spiracles are black; the ventral side is yellowish. At 
daytime the larva hides on the ground, recorded is its connection with 
ants. Pupa: muddy-brown with dark spots and shades, set with sparse 
hairs; it is fastened on a grass stem with a silken belt and hibernates. 

PECULIAR TRAITS OF IMAGO: F.w.l.: 14-17 mm. The wing uppreside is brown 
with rows of ochre-orange spots; the hind wing underside is ochre-fulvous 
with two rows of white spots.