Hesperiidae : Pyrginae
Safflower Skipper
PYRGUS carthami (Hübner, 1813)
Safflower Skipper
PYRGUS carthami (Hübner, 1813)
Life Cycle Guide - Europe Only - Flight times vary with location
Description
Wingspan: 26 - 33mm
Worldwide Distribution: Europe - ( Including Albania,Austria,Belgium,Bosnia H.Bulgaria,Croatia,Czech Republic,European Turkey,
France,Germany,Greece,Hungary,Italy,Lithuania,Luxembourg,Macedonia,Poland,Portugal,Romania,Russia - except north-west,Slovakia,
Slovenia,Spain,Switzerland,Netherlands and Ukraine) - From Spain to Urals towards east. Turkey,Crimea,north-west Caucasus. Absent from Mediterranean Islands.
UK Distribution: Europe only
UK Conservation Status -
Flight Period: May - September - dependant on location
Habitat: Flowery Slopes : Clearings : Woodland Edges : Nutrient poor grassland and rocky slopes
Similar Species -
Larva: The final instar is olive brown to beige with thin white dorsal and subdorsal lines. Covered with white speckling .Segments are highlighted by white ring at each segment. Head is black.Larvae in southern Europe tend to be lighter than those found in central Europe.
Overwinters as: usually overwinters as penultimate larva which produces adults mid May to mid July but overwintering by younger instars produce adults in August and September
Observations: A distinctive butterfly which can be identified by a number of easily recognised features such as the suffused grey basal area, the long grey hair around the thorax and abdomen and the extended white spots on the hindwing.
The butterfly prefers steppe - like dry grasslands and rocky ares which are nutrient poor where the larval food plant grows in "pads" providing the perfect habitat for the larva which would otherwise be found on sparsely vegetated areas.
There is one generation for this species which is usually dictated by the stage of the overwintering larva. When penultimte larva overwinter the butterlfy appears between mid May and mid July but when early stage instar overwinter the butterfly appears much later in August and September.
Ova are usually deposited on the underside of the leaf but in certain regions this is not the case with the outside of the leaf being preffered.
The largest of the European pyrgus it deposits the smallest ova and as a larva the smallest frasse.
The butterfly is endangered due to habitat loss but is still most common in the mountains of the Iberian Peninsula,Southern and southwestern Alps and locally in southeastern Europe.
For the record the butterfly below was recorded in Sinemorets SE Bulgaria on waste ground next to a hotel building site and was the only one found that week in September.
Worldwide Distribution: Europe - ( Including Albania,Austria,Belgium,Bosnia H.Bulgaria,Croatia,Czech Republic,European Turkey,
France,Germany,Greece,Hungary,Italy,Lithuania,Luxembourg,Macedonia,Poland,Portugal,Romania,Russia - except north-west,Slovakia,
Slovenia,Spain,Switzerland,Netherlands and Ukraine) - From Spain to Urals towards east. Turkey,Crimea,north-west Caucasus. Absent from Mediterranean Islands.
UK Distribution: Europe only
UK Conservation Status -
- Not applicable
- Endangered - becoming rarer in north of range due to habitat loss
- Papilio carthami (Hübner, 1813)
- Papilio alveolus Hübner, 1800
- S Germany - Bavaria
Flight Period: May - September - dependant on location
Habitat: Flowery Slopes : Clearings : Woodland Edges : Nutrient poor grassland and rocky slopes
Similar Species -
Larva: The final instar is olive brown to beige with thin white dorsal and subdorsal lines. Covered with white speckling .Segments are highlighted by white ring at each segment. Head is black.Larvae in southern Europe tend to be lighter than those found in central Europe.
Overwinters as: usually overwinters as penultimate larva which produces adults mid May to mid July but overwintering by younger instars produce adults in August and September
Observations: A distinctive butterfly which can be identified by a number of easily recognised features such as the suffused grey basal area, the long grey hair around the thorax and abdomen and the extended white spots on the hindwing.
The butterfly prefers steppe - like dry grasslands and rocky ares which are nutrient poor where the larval food plant grows in "pads" providing the perfect habitat for the larva which would otherwise be found on sparsely vegetated areas.
There is one generation for this species which is usually dictated by the stage of the overwintering larva. When penultimte larva overwinter the butterlfy appears between mid May and mid July but when early stage instar overwinter the butterfly appears much later in August and September.
Ova are usually deposited on the underside of the leaf but in certain regions this is not the case with the outside of the leaf being preffered.
The largest of the European pyrgus it deposits the smallest ova and as a larva the smallest frasse.
The butterfly is endangered due to habitat loss but is still most common in the mountains of the Iberian Peninsula,Southern and southwestern Alps and locally in southeastern Europe.
For the record the butterfly below was recorded in Sinemorets SE Bulgaria on waste ground next to a hotel building site and was the only one found that week in September.
Photo Gallery
Larval Food Plants Worldwide
Note - Plants hyperlinked in red below take the visitor to the relevant plant page on"Plants for a Future" website where further information like photos,physical characteristics,habitats,edible uses,medicinal uses,cultivation,propagation,range,height etc. are clearly listed.
Plant Families - in bold red below takes the visitor to the relevant "Lepi-plants" page where other butterflies & moths using the plants below are listed.
Plant Families - in bold red below takes the visitor to the relevant "Lepi-plants" page where other butterflies & moths using the plants below are listed.
- Malvaceaea - The Mallow Family
- Althaea hirsuta - Rough Marsh Mallow
- Althaea officinalis - Marshmallow
- Malva sylvestris - Common Mallow
- Rosaceae - Rose Family
- Potentilla argentia - Silvery Cinquefoil
- Potentilla cinerea - No Common Name
- Potentilla hirta - No Common Name
- Potentilla neumanniana - Spring cinquefoil
- Potentilla opaca - No Common Name
- Potentilla pusilla - Star-haired Spring cinquefoil
Laval Food Plants
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Taxonomy
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Kingdom:
Subkingdom: Phylum: Subphylum Class: Order: Superfamily: Family: Subfamily Genus: Accepted Species Name: Type Species - PYRGUS: Original Species Name: Species Names: Literary Ref: Type Locality: Subspecies: Forms: |
Animalia
Eumetozoa Arthropoda Hexapoda Insecta Lepidoptera Papilionoidea Hesperiidae Pyrginae PYRGUS Hübner 1819 Pyrgus carthami (Hübner, 1813) - Papilio alveolus Hübner, 1800 - PAPILIO carthami (Hübner, 1813) = Hesperia carthami = fritillarius auct. nec Poda, 1761 - Sammlung europäischer Schmetterlinge / errichtet von Jacob Hübner in Augsburg. By Hübner, Jacob, 1761-1826 : Lepidoptera 1 : Papiliones 11 Gens E : Plates v.1 : plate 143 - 721-723 - S Germany - Bavaria - P.c.lucasi Reverdin, 1929 - Forest of Benon (Charente - Maratime) Small size,complete suffusion white on both sides of wings,ventral side sometimes almost uniform colour - P.c.f.vittatus Oberthür,1910 - On forewing white spots in cells S1b,S2 & S3 elongate as in f.taras of P.malvae P.c.f.nevadensis Oberthür, 1910 - S Spain - strongly covered in white P.c.f.valesiace Mabille, 1875 - predominate in Valais - dull and large 31-33mm |