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Field Notes

Anti Atlas mountains, Morocco, March 2001

Underside of antenna completely orange. Also last 1/3rd of the antennal shaft is orange. Features that separate M. deserticola from M. didyma.

Anti Atlas mountains, Morocco, March 2001

Anti Atlas mountains, Morocco, March 2001

Is that a hint of an orange antennal tip? This is the same specimen as the
above two photographs.

Anti Atlas mountains, Morocco, March 2001

I think these are deserticola but that ring of orange on the antenna hints at didyma.

This is a truly desert species found only in hot dry places in the south of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria although it does fly in the mountains too where it is cooler. deserticola is very similar to Melitaea didyma but they are only very rarely found flying together.

A summary of the key differences is the:

• colour of the underside of the abdomen - deserticola is orange, didyma is white

• colour of the antennae - deserticola is completely orange beneath, didyma is all black with an orange ring at tip

• the black scales of the checkered fringe - in deserticola they reach the wing margin, in didyma they do.

All the photos above were taken at the same site and I'm happy that the the close ups are of deserticola. See the orange underside of the antennae - clearest in the oddly positioned antenna of the first photograph. At the time I checked for and found orange undersides to the abdomens. I didn't use the checkered fringe check. However, the mating pair aren't so clear as the antennae look to have an orange ring on the tip. This could just be caused by the angle of the photograph. The quality of the photo isn't that great either.

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