''Cyaniris bellis'', the Greek mazarine blue, is a
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
found in the
Palearctic
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...
(Asia Minor, South Europe, North Africa, Transcaucasia, Iran) that belongs to the
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
family.
Taxonomy
The subspecies ''C. b. antiochena'' (Lederer, 1861) is found in Caucasus Minor, Armenia (highlands) and the Talysh Mountains.
Description from Seitz
bellis Frr. (82 e, f) is above like ''montana'' .
semiargus''">f_''Cyaniris_semiargus.html" ;"title="receding text — montana M.-Dur (82 e) is an alpine form [of ''Cyaniris semiargus">semiargus''which occurs in the higher Alps and the mountains of South-East Europe; smaller, the male bright blue above, with broader black distal border] but the hindwing beneath bears traces of yellowish red spots in anal area. In ''helena'' Stgr. (82 f), a small form from the mountains of Southern Greece, the reddish yellow spots of the underside form a continuous chain and some of them appear in the female also on the upperside, which is quite generally the case in the still more southern form ''antiochena'' Led.
[Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, ''Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter'', 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren) ]
Biology
The larva feeds on ''
Anthyllis vulneraria
''Anthyllis vulneraria'', the common kidneyvetch, kidney vetch or woundwort is a medicinal plant native to Europe. The name ''vulneraria'' means "wound healer".
Description
''Anthyllis vulneraria'' reaches of height. The stem is simple or more ...
'' , ''
Trifolium pratense
''Trifolium pratense'', the red clover, is a herbaceous species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae, native to Europe, Western Asia, and northwest Africa, but planted and naturalized in many other regions.
Description
Red clove ...
'', ''
Melilotus officinalis
''Melilotus officinalis'', known as sweet yellow clover, yellow melilot, ribbed melilot and common melilot, is a species of legume native to Eurasia and introduced in North America, Africa, and Australia.
Description
''Melilotus officinalis'' c ...
'', ''
Lotus corniculatus
''Lotus corniculatus'' is a flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae, native to grasslands in temperate Eurasia and North Africa. Common names include common bird's-foot trefoil, eggs and bacon, birdsfoot deervetch, and just bird's-foot trefoi ...
''.
See also
*
List of butterflies of Russia
This is a list of butterflies of Russia. About 540 species are known from Russia. The butterflies (mostly diurnal) and moths (mostly nocturnal) together make up the taxonomic order Lepidoptera.
The history of lepidopterology in Russia is connec ...
References
Polyommatini
{{Polyommatini-stub