Parnassius stubbendorfii Menetries, 1849. (= Driopa stubbendorffii; = Parnassius stubbendorffi; = P. stubbendorfi).
A striking Siberian/Mongolian/Far Eastern species of the genus Parnassius, most allied to an European (+most western Siberian)/West Central Asian Parnassius mnemosyne L. (Clouded Apollo). This has the most reduced colouration within the genus, in males of most subspecies to an entire disappearance of any spots, the pattern consisting of black-suffused veins and a transparent area along the fore wing outer margin, so that the butterfly amaizingly resembles a Pierid Aporia crataegi (Black- veined White). Moreover, the latter is the most abundant and omnipresent butterfly almost everywhere in South Siberia and its flight period starts only few days later than that of P. stubbendorffii. Therefore, P. stubbendorffii individuals mostly fly among numerous black-veined whites. One can tell the formers from the latters by a flying mode characteristic to all the Parnassius, slow and partly soaring, low above the grass. Besides, P. stubbendorffii is more confined to its station being rather damp forest meadows, mostly in rivulet valleys or in subalpine parklands, where its foodplants, ephemeroid Corydalis grow. I am not sure such a similarity to A. crataegi gives the species an advantige, as the latter seems not to be an unedible species, but maybe it plays on some trends of predators to pay attention on anything unusual.
Range: the mountains of South Siberia and the adjacent lowlands, Mongolia, the Far East, the Sakhalin, NE China, Korea.
ssp.: typicus Bryk, 1914; range: Altai Mts., the Kuznetskoe Nagorye upland, the eastern Novosibirsk Province.
a female on Polemonium coeruleum, wings open
A meadow in the Bolshoy Elbash rivulet valley, Iskitim District, Novosibirsk Province, 5th June 1999.
O. Kosterin.
Ареал: горы Южной Сибири и прилежащие равнины, Монголия, Дальний Восток России, Сахалин, СВ. Китай, Корея.
ssp.: typicus Bryk, 1914; ареал: Алтай, Кузнецкое нагорье, всточная часть Новосибирской области.