Muschampia lavatherae

Muschampia lavatherae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Hesperiidae
Genus:	Muschampia
Species:	M. lavatherae
Binomial name
Muschampia lavatherae (Esper, 1783)
Synonyms
Carcharodus lavatheraeEsper, 1783

Muschampia lavatherae, the marbled skipper, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found from the Rhine Rift Valley in central Germany up to North Africa and from south-eastern France up to Anatolia.

The wingspan is 28–34 mm.

Description in Seitz

C. lavatherae Esp. (85 a). Yellowish grey or ash-colour; hindwing darker, with two rows of distinct, almost white, spots. Underside of hindwing with two small grey bands in the centre. — Southern Europe, North Africa, Syria, Armenia. ^[1]

Biology

The butterfly gives one generation per year and flies from May to July depending on the location. ^[2]

The larvae feed on Stachys recta and Sideritis scordioides in Southern Europe.

This species was formerly a member of the genus Carcharodus . As a result of genomic research published in 2020, it was transferred to the genus Muschampia . ^[3]

References

1. Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter, 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren)
2. Marbled Skipper at Butterfly Conservation Armenia
3. Zhang, Jing; Brockmann, Ernst; Cong, Qian; Shen, Jinhui; et al. (2020). "A genomic perspective on the taxonomy of the subtribe Carcharodina (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae: Carcharodini)". Zootaxa. 4748 (1): 182–194. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4748.1.10 . PMC   8018707 . PMID   32230093.

External links

• Butterflies of Europe
• Butterfly Conservation Armenia