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Hipparchia mersina
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Samos, Greece,
June 2002
Fairly uniform
gray helps distinguish this species from the heavily mottled
dark brown Hipparchia aristaeus with which it flies. |
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Samos, Greece,
June 2002 |
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Samos, Greece,
June 2002
A lucky shot
as the butterfly in the previous photo flicks its wings
revealing the usually stubbornly guarded upperside. |
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Samos, Greece,
June 2002 |
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One of a group of very similar Hipparchia
species known only from the Greek Islands (and further east in Turkey). mersina
is known only from the islands of Samos and Lesbos. Other islands nearby
harbour H. pellucida and christenseni. Even the isle of
Ikaria, a stones throw from Samos, holds pellucida in place of mersina.
How such mutual exclusion occurs baffles me as some individuals must
stray across the 2 or 3 km of open water between the islands. I guess
each species must be so closely adapted to conditions of their
respective islands that they can't adapt to other conditions quickly
enough to establish colonies.
It is similar to the Southern Grayling Hipparchia aristaeus
senthes which occurs on Samos. mersina is grayer and more
uniform underside coloration. It has a rather weak or even absent which
band on the unh (see the photo at top of the page). The uppersides are
never naturally seen, although my video did catch the butterfly above
flicking its wings. That upperside provides more evidence for mersina
- it has hardly any orange where aristaeus has much much more
especially on the forewing. However, as the underside is so dark, I do
wonder if infact it is aristaeus after all. Any comment?
We found it flying at the highest levels on the island around
the tree line at about 1000m. They are supposed to occur lower down but
we didn't find any. |
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