Russia, the world's largest country, comprises much of northern Eurasia, and stretches over a vast expanse of Europe and Northern Asia. Due to its size, Russia displays both monotony and diversity. As with its topography, its climates, vegetation, and soils span vast distances. From north to south the East European Plain is clad sequentially in tundra, coniferous forest (taiga), mixed and broadleaf forests, grassland (steppe), and semi-desert as the changes in vegetation reflect the changes in climate. Siberia supports a similar sequence but is predominantly taiga. The country contains forty UNESCO biosphere reserves.
The Ural Mountains or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan. The mountain range forms part of the conventional boundary between the regions of Europe and Asia. Vaygach Island and the islands of Novaya Zemlya form a further continuation of the chain to the north into the Arctic Ocean.
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms. It spans the entirety of the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: Ural, Siberia and the Russian Far East. North Asia is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to its north; by Eastern Europe to its west; by Central and East Asia to its south; and by the Pacific Ocean and North America to its east. It covers an area of 13,100,000 square kilometres (5,100,000 sq mi), or 8.8% of Earth's total land area; and is the largest subregion of Asia by area, but is also the least populated, with a population of around 33 million, accounting for merely 0.74% of Asia's population.
Leymus is a genus of plants in the grass family Poaceae (Gramineae). It is widespread across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Ural is a geographical region located around the Ural Mountains, between the East European and West Siberian plains. It is considered a part of Eurasian Steppe, extending approximately from the North to the South; from the Arctic Ocean to the end of Ural River near Orsk city. The border between Europe and Asia runs along the Eastern side of the Ural Mountains. Ural mostly lies within Russia but also includes a small part of Northwestern Kazakhstan. This is a historical, not an official entity, with borders overlapping its Western Volga and Eastern Siberia neighboring regions. At some point in the past, parts of the currently existing Ural region were considered a gateway to Siberia, or even Siberia itself, and were combined with the Volga administrative the divisions. Today, there are two official namesake entities; the Ural Federal District and the Ural economic region. While the latter follows the historical borders, the former is a political product; the District omits Western Ural and includes Western Siberia instead.
Boloria is a brush-footed butterfly (Nymphalidae) genus. Clossiana is usually included with it nowadays, though some authors still consider it distinct and it seems to warrant recognition as a subgenus at least.
Dodia is a genus of woolly bear moths in the family Erebidae. The genus was erected by Harrison Gray Dyar Jr. in 1901. The moths are found in subarctic tundra and taiga ecosystems. They belong to the subtribe Callimorphina of tribe Arctiini.
Epimydia is a monotypic tiger moth genus in the family Erebidae. Its only species, Epimydia dialampra, can be found in mountainous steppe areas in southern Siberia, eastern Yakutia and northern Mongolia. Both the genus and species were first described by Otto Staudinger in 1892. Females are very small and brachypterous.
The Prehistory of Siberia is marked by several archaeologically distinct cultures. In the Chalcolithic, the cultures of western and southern Siberia were pastoralists, while the eastern taiga and the tundra were dominated by hunter-gatherers until the late Middle Ages and even beyond. Substantial changes in society, economics and art indicate the development of nomadism in the Central Asian steppes in the first millennium BC.
Oeneis jutta, the Jutta Arctic or Baltic grayling, is a species of butterfly in the subfamily Satyrinae with a Circumboreal distribution. It occurs in bogs and tundra in the north of Europe, the Baltic states, the Urals, Siberia, northern Kazakhstan, the Russian Far East, northern Mongolia, northeastern China, North Korea, and northern North America. Larvae feed on Carex and Eriophorum, possibly also Glyceria, Molinia, and Juncus. Ledum palustre is the preferred nectar plant of the adult butterflies. The species has one generation every one or two years, depending on the location.
Colias nastes, the Labrador sulphur, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. In Europe, it is found in the north of Norway and Sweden and on rare occasions in Northern Finland. It is also found in North America, specifically in Alaska, Canada, and the Rocky Mountains, Washington, Montana and on Greenland. In Asia, it is found in the Altai Mountains, the border regions of Russia, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, the Sayan Mountains, the north of Siberia, and in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.
Boloria napaea, the Napaea fritillary or mountain fritillary, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. In Europe the species is found in the Alps, mountainous areas in northern Scandinavia and very local in the eastern parts of the Pyrenees. In North America it is found in Alaska, northwestern Canada, and in small populations in the Canadian part of the Rocky Mountains, Alberta, and Wyoming. In Asia it is found in Siberia, the Altai Mountains, and the Amur Oblast.
Agrotis ruta is a moth of the family Noctuidae first described by Eduard Friedrich Eversmann in 1851. It has a Holarctic distribution. In North America it has a northern distribution, occurring from Alaska and the Yukon Territory to Labrador, south to northern Manitoba and British Columbia, and in the Rocky Mountains to southern Alberta. Furthermore, it can be found in the northern Urals, Siberia, Mongolia, China and Japan.
Heliothis ononis, the flax bollworm, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It is found in China, Kazakhstan, central Asia, northern Mongolia (Khangai), the Russian Far East, the Korean Peninsula, southern European part of Russia, southern and central Europe, southern and eastern Siberia and Turkey. In North America it is found from south-central Manitoba west to British Columbia, north to the Northwest Territories and Yukon and Alaska and south to Colorado.
Xestia speciosa is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in northern Europe, including Fennoscandia, the Baltic region, parts of Russia and further through northern Asia to the Pacific Ocean and Japan. It is also found in the mountainous areas of central and southern Europe. It is also present in north-western North America.
Oeneis melissa, the Melissa Arctic, is a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It has a Holarctic distribution, ranging from Siberia and the North American Arctic from Alaska east to Baffin Island and Labrador. Isolated populations are found from the Rocky Mountains south to northern New Mexico and in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The habitat consists of tundra, talus slopes, rocky summits and saddles and frost-heaved clear cuts.
Dodia diaphana is a moth of the family Erebidae. It was described by Eduard Friedrich Eversmann in 1848. It is found in Russia and Mongolia.
Oeneis magna is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It was described by Ludwig Carl Friedrich Graeser in 1888. It is found from the Altai Mountains to southern Siberia and the Russian Far East, Mongolia, northern China and Korea. The habitat consists of sparse woodlands and mountain tundras.
Oeneis bore, the white-veined Arctic or Arctic grayling, is a butterfly, a species of Satyrinae that occurs in North America and Asia.
