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Pseudochazara anthelea

White Banded Grayling

Field Notes

NW Greece, August 2008

NW Greece, August 2008

Parnassos, Greece, July 2007

Samos, June 2002

Unusual view - a flick of the wings revealing the upperside.
Note dark scent band on forewing only found in males.

Parnassus, Greece, July 2007

Crete, June 2004

Samos, June 2002

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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