Petaloudes ( el, Πεταλούδες) is a former

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

on the island of

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

, in the

Dodecanese The Dodecanese (, ; el, Δωδεκάνησα, ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Turkey's Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rhodes, of which it is a municipal unit. Its population was 14,962 in 2011. It includes the villages of Kremasti, Paradisi, Theologos (Tholos), Damatria, Maritsa, and Pastida. The seat of the municipality was in Kremasti. The land area is 89.150 km². The Petaloudes Valley (sometimes known as Valley of the Butterflies) is home to thousands of the Rhodes

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...

of the

Jersey tiger moth ''Euplagia quadripunctaria'', the Jersey Tiger, or Spanish Flag, is a day-flying moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus in 1761. The adult wingspan is , and they fly from July to September, de ...

(''Euplagia quadripunctaria rhodosensis'') that cover the entire landscape after the wet season (late May) due to the high humidity in the area. The

Oriental sweetgum ''Liquidambar Orientalis'', commonly known as oriental sweetgum or Turkish sweetgum, is a deciduous tree in the genus ''Liquidambar'', native to the eastern Mediterranean region, that occurs as pure stands mainly in the floodplains of southwest ...

trees in Petaloudes Valley give off a scent that attracts the moths and creates a unique biotope. Owing to the increased number of visitors, the ''Euplagia'' are facing population issues as they have no stomach and when disturbed tend to fly frequently and thus deplete their energy.

Gallery

File:Butterfly valley-Rhodes 1.jpg, Waterfall at Petaloudes valley File:Butterfly valley-Rhodes 2.jpg, Forest at Petaloudes valley File:Butterfly valley-Rhodes 3.jpg, Landscape at Petaloudes valley File:Butterfly valley-Rhodes 4.jpg, Landscape at Petaloudes valley

External links

The Valley of the Butterflies

References

Populated places in Rhodes Natura 2000 in Greece {{SouthAegean-geo-stub