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| Photos: explicit permission must be obtained from Matt Rowlings for any use of any images from eurobutterflies.com. |
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Chelmos Blue
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Pelopennesos, Greece, June 2002 White stripe on underside hindwing, bright blue ups with narrow black border. |
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Pelopennesos, Greece, June 2002 |
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Pelopennesos, Greece, June 2002 |
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Pelopennesos, Greece, June 2002 |
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Its European range is extremely small, known only from Mt Chelmos in southern Greece. Further east it is found across Turkey and countries to the east of that. It is characterised by the white streak on the underside hindwing, a common feature amongst the Agrodiaetus species, coupled with the bright shining blue of the upperside and a narrow black border. We found them at the end of June, only just emerged at the very beginning of their season. There were no females on the wing at that time. There was a cloud over the survival of this species - professional collectors were exterminating a nearby site for Turanana endymion. I've made a few comments on that page too. These selfish and ill informed collectors had been here for 7 days and were proudly killing every single specimen they could find of the incredibly local species. We also saw the collectors in the gully that is home to this extremely local species so we worry that this colony was subject to the same extermination. I contacted a well known Greek lepidopterist about these Dutch collectors and he said "oh no, not again - the Germans wiped out a colony a few years ago". (I'm not saying that all Dutch, German or other collectors behave irresponsibly - most probably don't). My plea is don't buy from collectors who have hundreds of very rare butterflies for sale - they are not enthusiasts trying to cover the costs of a holiday - they are single handedly responsible for extermination of very local species! |