Caucasus, Ciscaucasia and Transcaucasia

Great report! Goldfish Julodis andreae

This post was edited by Michalis - 01.06.2016 14: 07

Sarykum Nature Reserve, Dagestan.
Short excursion with one night stay.
While the entire Caucasus is flooded with rain, it is more or less dry and comfortable here.
Landscapes:









A stone marten ran along these rocks.



Capers are blooming. We collected buds for salting.




The most common reptiles were yellow-bellied ones. I didn't see Gyurzu this time, but I did see a sand boa constrictor. A rare thing. Moreover, he crawled in a crack of a clay slope, and not on the sand.




On the dune itself live wonderful eared roundheads. Biting ones...




There are important green toads sitting under the rocks.



Of the spiders, tarantulas are common.




Well and more


At night, scorpions were caught using a UV flashlight.



There are a lot of cicadas on the bushes



Under the eaves are the larvae of ant lions.



Harpy caterpillars are quite common on poplars.



From the butterflies in the mass fluttered Melanargia russiae.




Beautiful Pelopeias (Pseudochazara pelopea)were perched on the rocks,



Chazara persephone and Hipparchia pellucida





Well, the usual Colias croceus and Thymelicus sylvestris




That's it, the end.

Great!
Now we have a photo of a supposedly interlude! Didn't you get enough harpies to breed your caterpillars?"

Great!
Now we have a photo of a supposedly interlude! Didn't you get enough harpies to breed your caterpillars?"

I didn't take it. If necessary, then next time.

I didn't take it. If necessary,then next time.

Yes, very, very necessary!
Thanks!

In the last week of July I will be in sunny Adjara (Gonio). I would like to catch beetles there (not butterflies). The time, of course, is not the most successful, but since I will be in a rented car, I can easily go 100 kilometers higher into the mountains (if there is a decent road).

The trouble is, I don't know anything about the area. Can anyone share their experience (interesting routes, points with abundant and diverse entomofauna, specific fishing technologies)?

I would also like to ask a question.
Did any of the participants transport their fees across the Georgian-Russian border at the Tbilisi airport?
Were there any difficulties with the transportation of your material? Is your luggage checked?
Thanks!

It is also rare in our country. The pupa was lying at home in the closet in an open jar. The butterfly is already straightening up. I don't know exactly the northern edge of its range, but it's definitely a southern species.

Strangely, this is probably the most frequently encountered moth, if not the most frequently encountered moth at all, along with Habrosyne pyritoides...

I would also like to ask a question.
Did any of the participants transport their fees across the Georgian-Russian border at the Tbilisi airport?
Were there any difficulties with the transportation of your material? Is your luggage checked?
Thanks!

No. You can even drive the devil bald. the main thing is that the horns do not stick out.

No. you can get the hell out of here. the main thing is that the horns do not stick out.

You need to trust your wife, otherwise you can't leave...

27.06.2016 Zheleznovodsk. Lush foliage, fountains beat, catalpa blooms, ibericus (Lucanus ibericus) fly through the forest...

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Buy a soap dish, any better pictures will be.

mobile is also not bad - it's just hard to carry a DSLR on hiking trips and in the rain
Tuapse district, hr. Semiglavy

This post was edited by I. solod - 29.06.2016 00: 08

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Who's talking about a DSLR?
Once on the forum I read a verse in which there was a wonderful last line
"So glory to my soap box,
It does not weigh either...я"

Who's talking about a DSLR?
Once on the forum I read a verse in which there was a wonderful last line
"So glory to my soap box,
It does not weigh ... I"

I'll get into the conversation about soap dishes a little bit, just recently I bought the same soap dish as you have! Admiring that shot of crocea from the previous report. I really liked it!!!!
In one hand the net, and in the other this baby, you can catch and photograph at the same time.
The color quality was amazing, like a SLR camera.

You need to either catch it or take pictures . Probably only Cicero could do both at the same time .
Armenia, May-2016

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This I certainly slightly exaggerated, But a very small soap dish shoots much better than a small phone.
As always, your photos are great.

Gentlemen, of course, I do not pretend to the uniqueness and highly artistic nature of my photos. There is a good camera, but it is large and heavy. And the phone already needs to be changed 5 Mpx., it takes a poor picture, I understand. I just tried to convey the general atmosphere and feelings of the place and what is happening, and you will not carry a soap dish always and everywhere either. And so... I stopped by the forest park after work, caught a few ibericus and left. )) Neither Cicero, of course, nor Caesar, but came, saw, won)))

There are better photos in the next report
We went in the 20th of June to Karachay-Cherkessia in the area of the Gumbashi pass and the foot of the local "Cordillera" - the Bermamyt plateau.
Subalpine - a mix of lush undisturbed vegetation and areas trampled by cattle. On the one hand, you can find interesting endemics, on the other-a paradise for lovers of various dung beetles. Among them, I picked up some interesting aphodiums and onthophaguses. Among the large ones, Trypocopris inermis was found in abundance.
Ground beetles:
ubiquitous Carabus (Eucarabus) cumanus
multicolored (bright grass-green, blue, almost black) Carabus (Carabus) granulatus leander
Tribaxes Carabus (Tribax) circassicus, Carabus (Tribax) biebersteini
Carabus (Archiplectes) edithae
Carabus (Cechenochilus) boeberi
Carabus (Pachycarabus) koenigi
Carabus (Tomocarabus) convexus
Carabus (Megodontus) aurolimbatus
Носились Cicindela (Cicindela) desertorum

This post was edited by Michalis - 30.06.2016 14: 17

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July 7-8, 2016 Short trip to the Western Caucasus.
The first excursion was in the vicinity of the village of Psebay. The western tip of the Rocky Ridge. The height is up to 1000. Meadows, broad-leaved desa. The grasses are raging. Lots of horseflies. It's hot and stuffy after the rains.
I counted 32 species of diurnal butterflies. All are common in the North Caucasus.


A huge number of sawtails sang so loudly that their ears were blocked and they wanted to run away.



Heteropterus morpheus, female


I've never seen so many dryads. They fed on the flowers, gathered in the moist soil, perched on my sweaty hat, and drank the juice of a dead lizard.




The female Marigold Galatea did not want to mate and fought off the male with her wings.


Collected a small series of very beautiful Coenonympha glycerion.


Then we decided to go up the Big Lab to the Zakan Gorge, where I was 30 years ago. I was hoping to take a walk in the subalpine meadows and enjoy the mountain coolness. The road hasn't gotten any better since then. 37 km of the road broken by logging trucks turned the trip into torture. The average speed is 10 km per hour.


We got there at dusk. Tents were pitched. It was a beautiful evening with flying fireflies. During the night, a thunderstorm began, which turned into heavy rain without any hope of improving the weather. I had to retreat.





On the way back, closer to the entrance of the gorge, the sun appeared. We decided to take a walk in the woods. And so:


Dubovik, probably.


Veselka!!!


Extraction.


The car merged with nature.

Georgia 2016-along and across, and diagonally many times.From humid subtropical forests and cool alpics, to the Central Asian heat of the Vashlovansky Nature Reserve.
With memories,friends and partners Dorcadion-y, Ripper-y, "Uncle Sasha" and ... Entalex-y, who was with us with all his heart and soul

This post was edited by DISAF - 07/19/2016 00: 55

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One-day trip to Dombay 7.08.2016
We passed through the Gumbashi pass (Rocky Ridge).
Hipparchia authonoe and Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) damon flew overhead. I caught sight of one karabus. Probably violaceus?


In Dombay, we took a cable car and went up to 2800.
You ride a cable car and admire the unusual angle of a beautiful forest area.





Alpaca blossoms at the top! KRASATA!!!



Mytnik Nordmann blooms and Apollo Nordmann flies! Here are two guises for you!


Eteopappus kavkazskii


Delphinium Kavkazskiy


Alpine aster


Bell saxifrage


A number of Caucasian Alpine species could be observed from the diurnal butterflies.

Parnassius nordmanni.
Biotope.


Male.



A beetle was perched on the wing of this specimen. Probably accidentally crawled out of a flower.


The female. This butterfly was discovered immediately after mating. Her wings weren't quite dry yet, and there was still some birth fluid left, but she was already wearing a chastity belt - sphragis!
I took the females with me and they are well carried in Pyatigorsk.




Erebia melancholica.
Male.




The female.


Melitaea interrupta.
Male.


The female.


Eumedonia eumedon.



Coenonympha tullia. Somehow very similar to C. glycerion



I considered the capture of a female Pontia callidice lucky. It's sitting in a cage right now, but it's not rushing. Waiting for us.


End.

This post was edited by Valentinus - 10.08.2016 18: 53

Great! I saw the photos and immediately remembered my visit to you in the Caucasus a year ago! It's good there. And then I didn't get callidika)

Great! I saw the photos and immediately remembered my visit to you in the Caucasus a year ago! It's good there. And then I didn't get callidika)

Yes, it's good here! Only now I remembered the story of entomologist friends about a trip to Upper Balkaria, where they met "colleagues" from the Urals, who boasted that they had caught hundreds of specimens of Parnassius nordmanni in a few days of parking in that place! No, well, collecting, well, commerce - I understand everything, but you have to have a conscience in the end! No need to treat these places so predatory, perceiving it as free poaching grounds! It is clear that in the vicinity of large industrial cities there is not such a riot of nature as here, but this does not give the right to destroy the population so barbarously! That's all I wanted to say.

This post was edited by Michalis - 10.08.2016 22: 51

Carabus (Megodontus) aurolimbatus. It turns out that violaceus does not live in the Caucasus. Only aurolimbatus. Typical of the Gum-Bashi pass.

Carabus (Megodontus) aurolimbatus. It turns out that violaceus does not live in the Caucasus. Only aurolimbatus. Typical of the Gum-Bashi pass.

Many experts consider it a subspecies of Carabus violaceus.

This post was edited by Michalis - 11.08.2016 08: 08

Maybe. But the most common opinion is that it is still an independent species. I have, for example, in the collection, violaceus from Ukraine.

This post was edited by Homo erraticus - 10.08.2016 23: 02

Unfortunately, no sympatry was found , but there is an uninterrupted transition from steppe violaceus in the east to typical aurolimbatus (in the east of Ukraine there are already 2 taxa). I am more of the opinion that this is an eastern subspecies of the highly variable violaceus, if only to look at its diversity of forms in Europe-especially in the Balkans and the South. I have almost all forms - more than 3 boxes - and on this basis the following conclusion:

This post was edited by I. solod - 12.08.2016 14: 13

Unfortunately, no sympatry was found , but there is an uninterrupted transition from steppe violaceus in the east to typical aurolimbatus (in the east of Ukraine there are already 2 taxa). I am more of the opinion that this is an eastern subspecies of the highly variable violaceus, if only to look at its diversity of forms in Europe-especially in the Balkans and the South. I have almost all forms - more than 3 boxes - and on this basis the following conclusion:

So still Carabus (Megodontus) violaceus aurolimbatus

Oh, this isn't my picture!
In Pyatigorsk, too, they are found. I don't know the type.

Oh, yes, so many pictures that I'm confused about the authorship. So a question for DISAF. And, in general, to everyone, maybe at least someone knows.

Yes, it's good here! Only now I remembered the story of entomologist friends about a trip to Upper Balkaria, where they met "colleagues" from the Urals, who boasted that they had caught hundreds of specimens of Parnassius nordmanni in a few days of parking in that place! No, well, collecting, well, commerce - I understand everything, but you have to have a conscience in the end! No need to treat these places so predatory, perceiving it as free poaching grounds! It is clear that in the vicinity of large industrial cities there is not such a riot of nature as here, but this does not give the right to destroy the population so barbarously! That's all I wanted to say.

I can't stomach them myself. I wonder what kind of colleagues they are? Probably Mrs. Zurilina(

This post was edited by daydreamer - 08/13/2016 07: 45

Oh, yes, so many pictures that I'm confused about the authorship. So a question for DISAF. And, in general, to everyone, maybe at least someone knows.

Eisenia magnifica

Yes, it's good here! Only now I remembered the story of entomologist friends about a trip to Upper Balkaria, where they met "colleagues" from the Urals, who boasted that they had caught hundreds of specimens of Parnassius nordmanni in a few days of parking in that place! No, well, collecting, well, commerce - I understand everything, but you have to have a conscience in the end! No need to treat these places so predatory, perceiving it as free poaching grounds! It is clear that in the vicinity of large industrial cities there is not such a riot of nature as here, but this does not give the right to destroy the population so barbarously! That's all I wanted to say.

Sorry I couldn't resist. Don't think about it - I'm all for nature conservation, but you overestimate the strength of a man with a net! The example that you give suggests that the "colleagues" were braggarts or that Apollo was well, oh, very much! In this case, the removal of several hundred specimens will not affect the state of the population in any way( you should know this if you are at least not much of a biologist), and reasoning like - " Here if everyone .. yes, hundreds of them!... " This is pure demagogy!
Sincerely, V. S.

In fact, when some...... begin to catch a certain species with hundreds of specimens at a time, this is already a pressure on the population, comparable to natural factors - birds, parasites, etc.

Sorry I couldn't resist. Don't think about it - I'm all for nature conservation, but you overestimate the strength of a man with a net! The example that you give suggests that the "colleagues" were braggarts or that Apollo was well, oh, very much! In this case, the removal of several hundred specimens will not affect the state of the population in any way( you should know this if you are at least not much of a biologist), and reasoning like - " Here if everyone .. yes, hundreds of them!... " This is pure demagogy!
Sincerely, V. S.

Come on, is it really impossible to completely destroy, for example, some highly local population of mnemosyne near Moscow with such methods?

Actually, when there are some ... they begin to catch a certain species in hundreds of instances at a time, which is already a pressure on the population, comparable to natural factors - birds, parasites, etc.

It is quite another matter when, on the contrary, very respectable people have been putting up crosses of 30 glasses with a fixator every 10m for the entire season for ten years in ten stations of the reserve, and they destroy tens of thousands of copies at different times and without any purpose, checking when 2 times a month, and when and once, for nothing special to them unnecessary ones. Then this is considered normal and is called, for example, " Studying the dynamics of epigeal ground beetle communities under the influence of long-term climate changes." The dynamics really leave much to be desired. The climate is to blame, you know. Absolute data on catchability, however, are usually not given, they are shy, only percentages. And they are terribly surprised when you tell them that outside the reserve, on the shreds of preserved similar biotopes, the catch rate for many species is several times higher.

It is quite another matter when, on the contrary, very respectable people have been putting up crosses of 30 glasses with a fixator every 10m for the entire season for ten years in ten stations of the reserve, and they destroy tens of thousands of copies at different times and without any purpose, checking when 2 times a month, and when and once, for nothing special to them unnecessary ones. Then this is considered normal and is called, for example, " Studying the dynamics of epigeal ground beetle communities under the influence of long-term climate changes." The dynamics really leave much to be desired. The climate is to blame, you know. Absolute data on catchability, however, are usually not given, they are shy, only percentages. And they are terribly surprised when you tell them that outside the reserve, on the shreds of preserved similar biotopes, the catch rate for many species is several times higher.

Yes, also an outrage.

"clean up" with a net is an extremely dubious task and almost impossible to implement due to the difference in the yield of imago, and you know this perfectly well: and the recovery time - yes. and one drunk asshole on a bulldozer is power