Damona [1] or Transcaucasian dawn [2] [3] or Lemon dawn [4] ( lat. Anthocharis damone ) is a day butterfly from the family of whites ( Pieridae ).
| Damona |
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| Scientific classification |
|---|
| No rank : | Bilateral symmetrical |
| Subtype : | Tracheo-breathing |
| Infraclass : | Winged insects |
| Treasure : | Fully Transformed Insects |
| Squadron : | Amphiesmenoptera |
| Infrastructure : | Butterflies |
| Treasure : | Double-breasted |
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| International scientific name |
|---|
Anthocharis damone ( Boisduval , 1836) |
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Damon (Greek history) - Athenian musician, teacher of Pericles and Socrates [3] .
Fore wing length 16-22 mm. Wingspan 30–35 mm [2] . Antennae capitate, dark above, whitish below, apex of the club light. Head and chest are covered with dense whitish-yellow hairs. The male has a lemon-yellow, bright background of wings. The fore wing is on top with an extensive orange field, bounded inside by a more or less developed dark band, against which a clear discal spot is always clearly visible. The top of the front wing is darkened, the inner border of this dark field is serrated, sharp; from below, this field corresponds to a bright yellow area with rarely arranged dark scales; the fringe is mottled, consists of black and yellow white areas. The hind wing is lemon-yellow on top, uniformly colored over the entire surface, and below - with a pattern of dark fields of irregular shape on a yellow background. The fringe is the same color as the background, sometimes with dark strokes against the veins [2] [3] .
The female has creamy white wings above and below. Fore wing from above with distinct discal spot and dark margin at apex containing oblong white areas. Bottom, the front wing is creamy white, with a black discal spot and a bright yellow top, the hind wing is bright yellow, with a pattern, like that of a male [3] .
The south of the Apennine Peninsula , Sicily , the Balkan Peninsula , Asia Minor , Iran , Syria , Lebanon , South Transcaucasia [3] .
It prefers arid light forests and mountain-xerophilic ridge formations. In Transcaucasia, the species is also confined to siblings with the state tree ( Paliurus ) and Pallas buckthorn . In Dagestan, it occurs along the bottom of beams and crevices with thickets of dry-loving shrubs and the obligatory presence of a feed plant of caterpillars, at an altitude of about 2100 m above sea level. m. [3]
Females lay eggs individually. Eggs lie on flower buds. Lemon-colored newborn caterpillars. It develops in one generation, the flight of butterflies from April to June. Males swiftly flutter along the beams, looking for females [3] .
Females lay eggs individually. Eggs lie on flower buds. Lemon-colored newborn caterpillars. At older ages, they turn green. The first time they eat flowers and buds, then they can feed on developing seeds, fruits and leaves. Fodder plants of caterpillars are species of weida ( Isatis ). Pupils on dry stems of a feed plant. A chrysalis overwinter . Some butterflies hatch in the second year [3] .
It was listed in the Red Book of the USSR (1984) as a rare species. In the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the species has 3 protection categories (VU - vulnerable taxon). It is included in the Red Book of European Day Butterflies with the category SPEC3 - a species that lives both in Europe and beyond, but is endangered in Europe [3] .
- ↑ Lvovsky A.L., Morgun D.V. Lepidoptera Lepidoptera in Eastern Europe. - M .: T-number of scientific publications of KMK, 2007. - P. 54. - 443 p. - ISBN 978-5-87317-362-4 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 N.I. Kochetova, V.N. Dyhnov, M.I. Akimushkina ,. Rare invertebrate animals. - Moscow: Agropromizdat, 1986. - 208 p. - 180,000 copies.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Morgun D.V., Dovgaylo K.E., Rubin N.I., Solodovnikov I.A., Plyushch I.G. Day butterflies (Hesperioidea and Papilionoidea, Lepidoptera) of Eastern Europe . CD identifier, database and software package “Lysandra”. - Minsk, Kiev, Moscow: 2005.
- ↑ Mirzoyan S.A. Batiashvili I.D. - Rare insects 1982. Forest industry. S.-165
- Nekrutenko Yu.P. Day butterflies of the Caucasus. Determinant. - Kiev: Naukova Dumka, 1990. - S. 72―73. - 216 p. - ISBN 5-12-001352-X .
