Central Asia and Kazakhstan

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04.05.2011 20:42, Svyatoslav Knyazev

Let's slightly dilute reports from the Middle zone with Central Asian exotics

I offer you a brief report on the expedition to Kazakhstan from April 19 to 29.
On the first day I arrived in Pavlodar, where I was joined by Sergey, together with whom the next morning we went by train to the glorious sunny city of Almaty. There we were already met by Peter and Stanislav. The field trip was scheduled for the next day. While waiting for registration, we decided to have a little rest and look around - nature was fragrant! everything was in full bloom, the bright southern sun quickly warmed the surrounding air and by noon the temperature reached +29.
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The next day, all business was settled and we left for Kapchagai. Our place of deployment was located on the rocky bank of the Ili River with an adjacent semi-desert, where turtles walked sedately.
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Everything was covered with blooming tulips. Poppies and irises were blooming. A. agestis, U. chinensis, L. myops, C. erate, P. machaon, M. didyma, P. afra, and others flew here. We expected to meet Apollonius here, but it was too early, and the cool, lingering spring delayed his departure for some time. A pleasant surprise was the capture of the first male Zegris fausti! Almost all the plants were covered with caterpillars presumably Lacydes spectabilis. Night fishing brought many interesting species of scoops, moths, and micras. There were at least 5 species of drasteria alone. Cucullia argentina flew in the mass, some indistinct moth. I was pleased with the large scarabs that came to the light.
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Two days later, we moved on to the vicinity of Bakanas. The point at which we stopped was a floodplain on the gentle bank of the Ili River, which in 100-150 m turned into a real desert.
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The butterfly fauna (and not only that) was noticeably different from the previous place. A lot of whiteflies fluttered around, looking like P. daplidice from a distance, but on closer inspection they were Euchloe ausonia, Zegris fausti, and Microzegris pyrothoe!! There was no limit to my joy! However, the most interesting and coveted trophy was a childhood dream - Hypermnestra helios! And the first instance was caught quite somehow banal-I was catching ausonia and accidentally hooked another butterfly in the net, which turned out to be H. helios )) All further attention has already been directed to the search for this wonderful sailboat. After some time, Sergey caught another male, which turned out to be the last one that day. Nevertheless, we returned to the camp satisfied. Along the way, various pigeons were found - ?ragneda, antracias, laetifica, etc.

The next day, we found a place where the food plant of helios caterpillars - artichoke-grows, there were more butterflies flying there, we managed to shoot enough of them.
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also captured the mating games of Z. fausti

At night, many good species also flew to the light - hawks Hyles centralasiae, harpies Cerura przewalskii, Furcula aeruginosa, bears Eudiaphora turensis, A. hebe, Phragmatobia sp. (? fuliginosa), small Cossidae, many scoops, moths, etc.
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Among the dunes, it turned out to be inhabited by many bears, which attacked the screen all night.
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The last night was almost ruined by the impending rain from Balkhash, but everything turned out fine and finally the hawk moth Smerinthus kindermanni arrived!
In general, the trip turned out to be very successful and productive! Thank you to all participants for a pleasant company! It should be noted that an expedition of the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan was traveling with us in parallel. The photo shows members of both groups.
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This post was edited by Konung-05.05.2011 17: 28

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14.07.2011 20:58, lepidopterolog

It's time for a short report on the expedition to Tajikistan, June 1-23, 2011

The destination of the trip was the Western Pamirs. Due to all sorts of bureaucratic issues (registration + registration of a permit to enter the border zone with Afghanistan), I had to stay in Dushanbe for about a week, during which time I periodically went to the Varzob Gorge, which is 50 km north of the capital. The raspberries that I went there to pick up were not found - apparently, it was early spring, and the preimaginal stages could not be found either. Among the relative interesting species at the bottom are Thymelicus alaica, Phoenicurusia margelanica and Paragrodiaetus dagmara, while at the top - Parnassius actius.
A week later, I finally managed to leave for the Pamirs. Along the way, I fished a little on the Darvaz ridge - good pigeons and satirids.
On the next day - Khorog: botsad struck with a huge number of Superflua sassanides, nothing more special.
Then - Ishkashim and 60 km along the Wakhan corridor. I was there for 3 days, the weather is terrible, and there is not much vegetation - only Plebejus samudra rognedus was found on the sands along the Panj.
The main part of the expedition was spent on the Rushan ridge, in the vicinity of the village of Khuf - a unique place inhabited by the most interesting people, allocated in a special nationality-Khufs. He worked mainly at altitudes of 2800-3500 m, most of the interesting things from the list (see below) - from there.
It was not possible to catch the light anywhere, but perhaps only Ourapteryx purissima and Euroctis karghalica deserve interest from different species. There are also a couple of glassworms for O. Gorbunov, a cossida for R. Yakovlev, and a fingerwing for P. Ustyuzhanin.
With bulavousyami had a little more luck.
Hesperiidae
Carcharodus alceae
C. dravira
Muschampia antonia
Spialia orbifer
Pyrgus cashmirensis
Thymelicus alaica

Papilionidae
Parnassius actius
P. jaquemonti
P. mnemosyne
Papilio machaon

Pieridae
Metaporia leucodice
Aporia crataegi
Pieris brassicae
P. rapae
P. mahometana
Colias alpherakyi
C. erate

Satyridae
Esperarge eversmanni
Lasiommata menava
Coenonympha nolckeni
Paralasa maracandica
Hyponephele interposita
H. dysdora
H. tristis
H. hilaris

Libytheidae
Libythea celtis

Nymphalidae
Vanessa cardui
Aglais nixa
Melitaea enarea
M. sultanensis
M. arduinna

Lycaenidae
Superflua sassanides
Neolycaena aeto
Lycaena phlaeas
Thersamonia solskiy
Phoenicurusia margelanica
Hyrcanana sartha
Tarucus balcanicus
Celastrina argiolus
Glaucopsyche alexis
Turanana grumi
T. laspura
Farsia sieversi
Plebejus argus
P. samudra rognedus
P. eversmanni
Plebejidea loewii
Agriades pheretiades
Aricia agestis
Eumedonia eumedon
Cyaniris persephattus
Alpherakya sarthoides
Polyommatus icarus
P. venus
P. icadius
Agrodiaetus phyllides
Paragrodiaetus dagmara

Finally, photos.

Hissar ridge

Darvaz

Let's wave our hand to the Hindu Kush-it's next in line

(this is the Wakhan Corridor-a strip of Afghanistan between Tajikistan and Pakistan)

Panj River - it actually runs along the border with Afghanistan

This is how people live in Afghanistan - even worse than in Jumuria Tojikiston (Republic of Tajikistan, taj.)

Good morning, Pamir!

Here, basically, and worked

Turanana laspura

A by-product of pigeon fishing

"The whole world is in the palm of your hand, you are happy and dumb..."

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This post was edited by lepidopterolog - 07/14/2011 21: 04

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07.08.2011 6:57, Yakovlev

The summer is over, which I am very happy about.
The trip to Kazakhstan was quite interesting-we visited very interesting places, the Ch valley. Irtysh, Saur, northern slopes of Tarbagatai. 19 days. Barnaul-Ust-Kamenogorsk-Zaisan and back. The estimate is 40 tr. Everything is cheap, food, gasoline. I was very happy with the attitude of the population. It is clear once in a while it is not necessary, but...
The training camps are quite interesting - a lot of nights, there are other groups.
1. Ulba ridge
2. Black Irtysh Valley
3. Saur, Mount Tas
4. Bazar River valley, Tarbagatay village
5. V. Doroshkin and I

photo by V. Doroshkin

Pictures:

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1.JPG — (7.34 mb)

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19.08.2011 16:14, Romyald

Hello everyone. I present to you the first half of my trip to Tajikistan. The main places for collecting insects are the surroundings of the Anzob pass, Iskanderkul Lake, Tagob ski base. Then, as always, my partner and I (Andrey Vashchenko's partner, Moscow) are invited to the wedding. And in the end, a bad trip to Tigrovaya Balka (fishing at night is not allowed under any sauce).