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White Banded Grayling
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Parnassus,
Greece, July 2007 |
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Samos, June
2002
Unusual view -
a flick of the wings revealing the upperside.
Note dark scent band on forewing only found in males. |
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Parnassus,
Greece, July 2007 |
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Crete, June
2004 |
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Samos, June
2002 |
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This is one of the earliest
Graylings on the wing. It is confined to SE Europe in Greece and a few
of its islands. It is rather beautiful and unusual with the white
upperside markings. These photographs were taken on Samos so they are of the subspecies anthelea.
It is much whiter than the mainland Greek subspecies amalthea. We
found spring's first examples flying in Greece at the end of May in 1995
flying amongst scrub oak with plenty of bare rocks. On Samos they were
flying above the tree line where they would rest conveniently on bare
rocks beside the path. However, they were difficult to approach in the heat
but we succeeded on several occasions.
The females are completely
different from the males - much larger, lacking the white underside band
and is generally much browner than the male. Subspecies anthelea
has extensive brown on the upperside in contrast to amalthea
which is closer to the male.
As always with Graylings
they do not normally open there wings so I have no photographs of the
uppersides. |
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