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This is one of the very difficult species of Hipparchi Graylings
to identify. It flies in SE Europe and has only limited overlap, if any,
with the extremely similar Rock Grayling, Hipparchia alcyone, in
central Eastern Europe. Much more problematic is the Woodland Grayling,
Hipparchia fagi, that shares almost the entire range of
syriaca. Only on the islands of Greece is syriaca alone,
hence I can say with some confidence that the photos above, taken on
Samos, are of syriaca. On Samos, these butterflies were flying
in shady woodland, shunning the hot sunshine. We found them on the green
northern slopes and also amongst the tall pines on the southern slopes.
They frequently rested on tree trunks where their cryptic shades
rendered them very hard to relocate, even when the location is known. |
