Parnassius stubbendorfii Menetries, 1849. (= Driopa stubbendorffii; = Parnassius stubbendorffi; = P. stubbendorfi).
A striking Siberian/Mongolian/Far Eastern species of the genus
Parnassius, most allied to an European (+most western
Siberian)/West Central Asian Parnassius mnemosyne L. (Clouded
Apollo). This has the most reduced colouration within the genus,
in males of most subspecies to an entire disappearance of any
spots, the pattern consisting of black-suffused veins and a
transparent area along the fore wing outer margin, so that the
butterfly amaizingly resembles a Pierid Aporia crataegi (Black-
veined White). Moreover, the latter is the most abundant and
omnipresent butterfly almost everywhere in South Siberia and its
flight period starts only few days later than that of P.
stubbendorffii. Therefore, P. stubbendorffii individuals mostly
fly among numerous black-veined whites. One can tell the formers
from the latters by a flying mode characteristic to all the
Parnassius, slow and partly soaring, low above the grass.
Besides, P. stubbendorffii is more confined to its station being
rather damp forest meadows, mostly in rivulet valleys or in
subalpine parklands, where its foodplants, ephemeroid Corydalis
grow. I am not sure such a similarity to A. crataegi gives the
species an advantige, as the latter seems not to be an unedible
species, but maybe it plays on some trends of predators to pay
attention on anything unusual.
Range: the mountains of South Siberia and the adjacent lowlands, Mongolia, the Far East, the Sakhalin, NE China, Korea.
ssp.: typicus Bryk, 1914; range: Altai Mts., the Kuznetskoe Nagorye upland, the eastern Novosibirsk Province.
A male on Taraxacum officinale Wigg.; wings open.
A bushy meadow on the right bank floodland of the Koen Riverat at the mouth of the Volchikha Rivulet, just downstream of the village Nizhnii Koen, Iskitim District, Novosibirsk Province, West Siberia, Russia. 26th May 1997. O. Kosterin. .