Subject: Re: Worlds rarest butterfly? habitat has been damaged!

From: Hristos Thomas Anastassiu <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 1996 14:25:59 -0400

> I would be interested to know if anyone knows of a rarer butterfly.
> Some tropical species I know are rarely seen, but does anyone know
> something rarer which has been well studied?

>  Neil Jones

In Europe there's a couple of very rare species, too. Erebia serotina
>from  the region of Cauterets in the French Pyrenees is known only
>from  male specimens and there have been no records for more than
20 years, as far as I know.
Some entomologists believe it is not a real species, but a hybrid
of E. epiphron x E. pronoe. Also, Pseudochazara anymone from
NW Greece is extremely rare. Again, only males have been collected,
almost all of them by one person (Brown), who actually discovered
the butterfly in the seventies.

Hristos Anastassiu
University of Michigan
[email-masked]

---

From: [email-masked] (Pierre Zagatti)
Date: 22 Apr 1996 11:51:32 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, Hristos 
Thomas Anastassiu <[email-masked]> says:

>the butterfly in the seventies.

Erebia serotina Descimon & De Lesse is a natural hybrid between
E. epiphron females and E. pronoe males, as shown by androconial
comparisons (Lalanne-Cassou B. & C., 1989, Alexanor 16:52-53).
G. Chovet successfully hybridized and reared the caterpillars. 
The obtained adults were compared to natural serotina by 
biometrical measurements. These results are not yet published.

Now there are some recent records of E. serotina in France and
Spain (Louis-Augustin, 1985, Alexanor, 13:348)(Lantero & Jordana
1980, Bol. Assoc. Sep. Entomol.4:185-189). The natural
hybrids occur almost every year, but are rarely seen, as they
fly late in Autumn, when the weather is very bad and the lepidopterist
very lazy.

Pierre Zagatti 
Bernard Lalanne-Cassou

INRA Phytopharmacie et Mediateurs Chimiques
78026 Versailles Cedex
France
http://www.jouy.inra.fr/USER/PRODUCTIONS/BDD/PAPILLON/index.htm