Caucasus, Ciscaucasia and Transcaucasia

Saddle-shaped rack.
I decided to take it with me. I was very afraid of the reaction of customs officers. Naturally, the customs noticed. They asked me to pull it out and show it to them. The whole train came running. Everyone started taking pictures. Ask who it is. One officer started asking unpleasant questions about protected objects, but the rest of the customs officers were good-natured. I mumbled something and was released.
Long live normal customs officers!!!

Do they have males?We have only females in the Volgograd region, although the other species is Sago pedo.

The steppe Dybka also has males, though rarely. If necessary, I'll post a picture of the collection pair.

Here is our Volgograd version

Pictures:

______2.jpg — (4.11 mb)

Well, a couple more pictures from Talysh and we are moving to the lowlands of Kura, Turanchai and the eastern tip of the Greater Caucasus.
Here are pictures from the beginning of June 2005.

Venus hair is a fern that is usually grown on windowsills.


One female bramea arrived, from which 8 eggs were obtained and three subsequent generations in culture.


The Kura lowland is rather monotonous. Maybe there is something interesting in Tugai, but it is always so hot there that I was not enough for more than a half-hour tour.







Egyptian herons


Turanchay. Wild pomegranates are blooming.


In the early morning, two of David's Hawkmoths arrived.



Then, to the east. Low mountains of the southern macroslope of the Greater Caucasus.


And mud volcanoes.





Multicolored clays


A wonderful Moscow ornithologist-Sergey Bukreev. In the evening, when we arrived at the parking lot, we found a lot of porcupine quills. I really wanted to see this animal. Sergey said that porcupines can be attracted by a grunt at night. I grunted for half the night, but the porcupine didn't come. So Sergey, the infection, joked with me.


Mediterranean baby turtle. A rare find.


Ofris ovodonosnaya.


Sunset.


Vodka with a local flavor.

Sasha hi
Cool animal, there is something from a cartoon character in it, well, something funny.

Well, a couple more pictures from Talysh and we are moving to the lowlands of Kura, Turanchai and the eastern tip of the Greater Caucasus.
Here are pictures from the beginning of June 2005.
A wonderful Moscow ornithologist-Sergey Bukreev. In the evening, when we arrived at the parking lot, we found a lot of porcupine quills. I really wanted to see this animal. Sergey said that porcupines can be attracted by a grunt at night. I grunted for half the night, but the porcupine didn't come. So Sergey, the infection, joked with me.

Thank you. I haven't seen Bukreev in 30 years.

Hello everyone. How everything has changed! I haven't been for a long time. I forgot my password - I hope to recover it now.
I have the most beautiful news, eternal and young in its great repeating cycle, wonderful as reincarnation, non-banal, unfading and vibrant! - yes!!! "you can probably guess! - I just met the first butterfly!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Night". Sitting on a pole under a street lamp at a height of about 3 meters. Shaggy, plump, patterned-grayish; wings like a house. Fotik sold - remove is not an option. It's humid and not cold outside. A sip of new spring. Thanks for attention.

Happy jam day (28.02), "Member offline Valentinus Permanent member Pyatigorsk"!

Join us! Valentine, happy birthday! An unforgettable trip to Beshtau with you! I wish you success and happiness!

And Andreas happy new birthday on the forum! Don't disappear again! With you, he is much more sincere!

Valentine, happy birthday! Total!

Valentine, thank you for the great pictures!
Happy Birthday!

Friends, thank you so much for the congratulations, but this is off topic.

Eastern Caucasus. Azerbaijan. June 2012.







Satyrium acaciae abdominalis


Kirinia klimene


Saddleback Rack again


Eogenes alcides. Male, female.



Pseudochazara pelopea.


Traces of Michal mikhalych.


Some kind of skid. I pretended to be dead, but as soon as I touched it, I ran away.


This post was edited by Valentinus - 02/28/2014 13: 56

Valentine, I join in the congratulations and thank you for the interesting reports!

Yesterday-26.03.2014 in Pyatigorsk observed the first dawn (Anthocharis cardamines). For me, this is the earliest discovery. Maybe someone else has seen it before, or maybe there is an exeplyarchik in the collection?

April 17-19. First trip.
Dagestan, Sarykum Dune.
A unique place. A huge dune of beautiful sand stands alone on the bank of the Shura-Ozen River, just behind the place where the river cuts through the low ridge of Norat-Tube (Karatebe).
There are several theories of its formation.
I have one of my own.
The Norat-Tube ridge frames the big Buinak basin. During the day, the sun warms up the air in this basin, and at night it cools down and becomes heavier and "flows" out of it. It moves along the valley of the Shura-Ozen River and rests on a narrow passage cut by this river through the ridge. The force of the wind reaches hurricane strength and blows sand from the ridge. Just outside the "gate" the wind subsides and the sand falls on the dune.
I have observed this process many times. On a quiet evening, he would set up a light trap on the slope of a dune, looking forward to a great summer, but at midnight there was always a strong wind. For a long time I couldn't understand what was going on.




The foot of the dune is overgrown with psammophytes with corresponding fauna.



Plebejus maracandicus


The female lays an egg on a previously unknown food plant - Astragalus brachylobus.


I found a skull in the sand. It looked like a wolf?

Well, the Norat-Tube ridge itself.
Here, of course, it is more diverse, but it is still too early.




Levkoi Dagestan.


Iris Krymsky


Iris acutiloba


Sandy poppy



Gesner's Tulip




Cherry gray


Kozloborodnik


?


POrnolistnik


The larvae of some beetles devoured all the cornflowers. They didn't leave it to the butterflies, you bastards.


There was a sea of Dorcadians!


Aricia agestis


Rutabagas. Ginandromorph?


Pontia daplidice/edusa


castrensis?



Collared eirenis


Mining

Valentinus, a very nice report!
The caterpillars of the cocoonworm seem to be the same as in our steppe.

April 17-19.
The Norat-Tube ridge frames the big Buinak basin. During the day, the sun warms up the air in this basin, and at night it cools down and becomes heavier and "flows" out of it. It moves along the valley of the Shura-Ozen River and rests on a narrow passage cut by this river through the ridge. The force of the wind reaches hurricane strength and blows sand from the ridge. Just outside the "gate" the wind subsides and the sand falls on the dune.
I have observed this process many times. On a quiet evening, he would set up a light trap on the slope of a dune, looking forward to a great summer, but at midnight there was always a strong wind. For a long time I couldn't understand what was going on.

An interesting version But, IMHO, there is not something here, the fact is that the wind is not formed from the fact that over a particular area the air becomes heavier then lighter, but from the fact that somewhere it expands and somewhere narrows.
Local winds arise from the temperature contrast between regions, when there is uneven cooling/heating in situations such as: near the sea, high mountains and a valley, the neighborhood of different types of soil..

The prey is good And the nature is steppe!

Valentine, haven't they "cooked" the turnip yet? have you dealt with daplidice/edusa? it is very "melanic"

Valentine, haven't they "cooked" the turnip yet? have you dealt with daplidice/edusa? it is very "melanistic"

Difficult question.
I consulted Vladimir Lukhtanov about the differences between P. daplidice and P. edusa. In his opinion, most likely, there is only one species - P. daplidice. As far as I understand, the existence of two species has so far been based on protein electrophoresis data( Geiger and Scholl, 1982). Differences in the structure of the genitals, according to Lvovsky and Morgun, 2007, are unstable. On DNA, I'm not ready to speak out yet.
According to Nekrutenko, Tshikolovets, 2012 in the Caucasus-Pontia daplidice daplidice.
I myself have not yet looked at the genitalia of this species in the Caucasian populations, but it is difficult for me to imagine that this massive, ubiquitous butterfly in the north and central Russia is a dappledica, and in our country it is an edusa.
Phenotypes dance incredibly. If you compare the series, you will not find any clear differences. In the picture, probably just a melanistic early spring specimen.

An interesting version But, IMHO, there is not something here, the fact is that the wind is not formed from the fact that over a particular area the air becomes heavier then lighter, but from the fact that somewhere it expands and somewhere narrows.
Local winds arise from the temperature contrast between regions, when there is uneven cooling/heating in situations such as: near the sea, high mountains and a valley, the neighborhood of different types of soil..

It's the same thing. The air heats up-expands and becomes lighter, rises up and vice versa. This, in my opinion, is the nature of mountain and sea breezes. In the mountains, after all, every fine day the wind blows up the slope, and at night down. Is not it so?

Difficult question.
I consulted Vladimir Lukhtanov about the differences between P. daplidice and P. edusa. In his opinion, most likely, there is only one species - P. daplidice. As far as I understand, the existence of two species has so far been based on protein electrophoresis data( Geiger and Scholl, 1982). Differences in the structure of the genitals, according to Lvovsky and Morgun, 2007, are unstable. On DNA, I'm not ready to speak out yet.

There are also giant differences in DNA - 8.8% in COI.

Pictures:

daplidice_edusa.jpg — (84.79к)

It's the same thing. The air heats up-expands and becomes lighter, rises up and vice versa. This, in my opinion, is the nature of mountain and sea breezes. In the mountains, after all, every fine day the wind blows up the slope, and at night down. Is not it so?

Well.. it is all interconnected, of course, but compressibility is more important here, if warm air became lighter, but remained the same in compression as cold air, then there would be no wind
In the mountains, the wind occurs due to a temperature gradient along the mountainside, I do not think that in your basin there are such high walls, I think there is an increase in air speed of 1 m/s per one km of height. Therefore, most likely there is a gradient of a different nature...

There are also giant differences in DNA - 8.8% in COI.

Here everything is actually very difficult. No one knows what exactly Mr. Fabricius meant by the name edusa.

1. Type no. Not saved.
2. It is incorrect to think that Fabricius did not know the works of Linnaeus (including the description of dapplidics). Accordingly, he could not re-describe the dhaplidics.
3. TM edusa-Kiel (Chilonii), this is Germany. Only daplidice, ausonia, and chloridice live here from similar butterflies. Other whiteflies characterized by "Subtus anticae concolores at maculis magis virescentibus" (undergarments with the same pattern, but the spots [instead of black] are green) simply do not exist in Germany.
4. The name edusa most likely describes what is now understood by the name chloridice: "Antennae fuscae claua alice alba "(brown antennae, white mace), " posticae late virides maculis tribus baseos (three broad green spots below). An important fact in favor of this is that the butterfly's size is similar to that of Papilio Cardamines ("statura et magnitudo P. cardamines").

need a type. Without it, all this research is "I don't know what"research. the double view is most likely hidden, but no one knows what kind of view it is, or what its name is.


[attachmentid()=197913]

The message was edited rhopalocera.com - 28.04.2014 11: 36

Here everything is actually very difficult. No one knows what exactly Mr. Fabricius meant by the name edusa.

1. Type no. Not saved.
2. It is incorrect to think that Fabricius did not know the works of Linnaeus (including the description of dapplidics). Accordingly, he could not re-describe the dhaplidics.
3. TM edusa-Kiel (Chilonii), this is Germany. Only daplidice, ausonia, and chloridice live here from similar butterflies. Other whiteflies characterized by "Subtus anticae concolores at maculis magis virescentibus" (undergarments with the same pattern, but the spots [instead of black] are green) simply do not exist in Germany.
4. The name edusa most likely describes what is now understood by the name chloridice: "Antennae fuscae claua alice alba "(brown antennae, white mace), " posticae late virides maculis tribus baseos (three broad green spots below).

need a type. Without it, all this research is "I don't know what"research. the double view is most likely hidden, but no one knows what kind of view it is, or what its name is.

That the names are a mess I undoubtedly agree with.
Here we can and should simply state that there are genetically significantly distinguishable twin species in the north and south.

This post was edited by bora - 04/28/2014 11: 40

That the names are a mess I undoubtedly agree with.
Here we can and should simply state that there are genetically significantly distinguishable twin species in the north and south.

For the northern southern type, there is a type that is kept in the collection of the Linnean Society. For the southern one, you should search for the name and give preference to the view with the preserved type. Here you can not do without a Commission (we look in the direction of bellidice, persica, raphani, belemida)

But the main question is-where does the border between them run?

The message was edited rhopalocera.com - 28.04.2014 15: 38

But the main question is-where does the border between them run?

Pictures:

d_e.jpg — (427.25 k)

By the way: ... Daplidice ... TL: "Europa australi, Africa"

Southern Europe and Africa. Quite widely ))).

According to the dendrogram, I still didn't understand where the border is. But the dendrogram is big and beautiful ))). There, the truth in the daplidik napi got mixed up - and it went well like this. A mistake? It is a pity that there is no access numbers in the legend - it would be possible to see where the instances come from.

Yes, the picture is interesting... Obviously, the species are vicarious.

[attachmentid()=197926]

Judging by the dendrogram, both species can occur sympatrically, which means that both can occur in the Caucasus.
However, there is still some doubt about the independence of taxa.

No, the taxa are 100% different, look at the haplotypes. This is a problem of typification and identification of diagnostic features. I'd like to have the ones that are sequenced totally cooked and have a look at their genitals. There must be diagnostic signs. Although they may not be in the genitals.

Then it is better to ask the question - can these two "taxa" interbreed and produce reproductive offspring? But how do you know by external signs that there will be two "taxa" in the cage and not one? Moreover, grooms and brides will have to be taken in the form of pupae for the purity of the experiment (preferably from different regions and forage plants)or even fed independently in the cage... and after mating, the male goes to the "chopping block"and then the female... This is how much time, people, and money is needed for genetics???
A bleak prospect...

No, the taxa are 100% different, look at the haplotypes. This is a problem of typification and identification of diagnostic features. I'd like to have the ones that are sequenced totally cooked and have a look at their genitals. There must be diagnostic signs. Although they may not be in the genitals.

What does that even prove?
If I understood correctly from wikipedia, then a haplotype is "a collection of alleles at loci on a single chromosome, usually inherited together". And how can SPECIES be distinguished by haplotype?

Haplotypes provide information about the number of INDEPENDENTLY occurring mutations. These are very conservative plots, and they remain unchanged for a very long time. It is problematic to use polymorphic regions of the genome for diagnostic purposes

What chromosomes are we talking about here, don't you understand?
This cladogram is based on the COI gene, a mitochondrial gene. This is extra-chromosomal inheritance

This post was edited by bora - 28.04.2014 17: 47

And what haplotypes are we talking about here?

Wikipedia's definition of a haplotype is not quite correct. more precisely, it is taken from human genetics. This is more precise:

A haplotype is a set of DNA variations, or polymorphisms, that tend to be inherited together.

The message was edited rhopalocera.com - 28.04.2014 18: 24