Parnassius phoebus (Fabricius, 1793) - Small Apollo.

Range: the Alps, the Urals, the mountains of South, Central and East Siberia, the Far East, Mongolia, N China and the western North America. ssp.: phoebus (Fabricius, 1798) - the Altai Mts.
Ареал: Альпы,Урал, горы Сибири и Дальнего Востока, Монголия, С. Китай, западная С. Америка
ssp: phoebus (Fabricius, 1798) - Алтай.

The Parnassius butterflies become little mobile when the sun hides behind the clouds and fail to get into the air when frightened. Instead, they exhibit a peculiar threatening behaviour: they spread the wings wide, showing striking red "eyes" (demonstrative colouration) and start to make convulsive movement of wings and a scratching sound by rubbing the hind legs against the under surface of the wings.

A male in its habitat, among a spectacular mountain tundra vegetation: white flowers is Claytonia joanneana Schult., red are Rhodiola coccinea (Royle) Boriss., the foodplant of Parnassus phoebus.

The left cirque of the sources of the Chikty Rivulet, 2700 m above sea level, the southern principle slope of the Yuzhno-Chuiskii mountain range, the upper Dzhazator River basin, Kosh-Agach District, Altai Republic, West Siberia, Russia. 10th July 1998. O. Kosterin.