Cynar's Fathead

Tsinara (Roman poetry) - Horace's beloved ^[1] ..

Valley of the front wing 14-16 mm. The background color of the wings is black, with large, often touching, angular white spots. The background of the underside of the front wings is black and brown.

The south of the European part of Russia, southeast of Ukraine, Crimea , Eastern Spain , the Balkan Peninsula , Turkey , the Caucasus , Transcaucasia .

In Eastern Europe, the species lives only in the steppe zone in southeastern Ukraine ( Lugansk and Donetsk regions), where it is very rare ^[2] . It was noted in many places in southeastern Crimea, where butterflies of this species are often, relatively numerous, within their habitats. It also lives in the south and southeast of the European part of Russia and the Caucasus. In the Lower Volga region it is found on the Right Bank of the Saratov Region, the south of the Volgograd Region and the Astrakhan Region. In the east, the border of the range passes through the Kuvandyk and Novotroitsky districts of the Orenburg region and Bashkiria. In Priazovye it is found on the territory of the Rostov Region. In the Western Caucasus it is known from the Novorossiysk region ^[3] .

Butterflies inhabit the grassy steppes, dry grassy and stony slopes, forest roads, steppe stony slopes of southern expositions, dry steppes on limestone soils.

Develops in one generation in a year. Flight time is observed from the end of June to July. Butterflies are very shy. Often sits on the soil, on herbaceous plants, feed on flowering Asteraceae (Asterceae). Males adhere to permanent sections of the territory from which they drive away other males. Eggs are laid by females on the flower buds of plants of the genus Potentilla , which are fodder for caterpillars.

The species is listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), where it is assigned the 4th protection category (LR (NT) - a taxon that is not threatened with extinction, but close to it, having adverse trends in the surrounding territories or depending on the measures taken to protect it )

• Nekrutenko Yu.P. , Chikolovets V.V. Denny Meteliki of Ukraine. - Kyiv: Vidavnitstvo Raєvskogo, 2005. - 232 p. - (Nature of Ukraine). - ISBN 966-7016-17-X . (Ukrainian) .
• Lvovsky A.L., Morgun D.V. - Lepidoptera Lepidoptera of Eastern Europe (Keys to the Flora and Fauna of Russia), Moscow: KMK, 2007