Rare Zygaenidae of the Swabian Alps in Southern Germany

[luehdorfia]

Since I come from Southern Germany, I tried to find some of the more difficult to find Zygaenide that live on the northern side of the Swabian Alps directly in the
hillsides that have a South-West exposure and therefore have an almost mediterranean summer. That is where Zygaena fausta suevica and Zygaena angelicae elegans still have some small locations where they occur.
I found Zygaena fausta suevica

Swabian Alps, 26th July 2016, Zygaena fausta suevica

[luehdorfia]

About Zygaena angelicae elegans I was not that sure, since in the exact same locality, there were several other Zygaenidae occuring. I also looked it up in a local butterfly field guide and at the same time there could be, Zygaena transalpina hippocrepidis, Zygaena angelicae elegans, or Zygaena filipendulae. For me as a beginner it is almost impossible to see the difference between them, although I think that filipendulae might be considerably bigger than the others.
In the following some more pictures.

Picture 2
Swabian Alps, 26th of July 2016. This looks for me like transalpina or angelicae.

[luehdorfia]

This one was very fresh


Picture 3
Swabian Alps, 26th of July 2016

[luehdorfia]

This one might be Zygaena filipendulae, since it was considerably bigger than the others. But all of them were at the exat
same locality, sometimes on the same flower at the same time. Perhaps there are even hybrids between transalpina and angelicae.


Picture 4
Swabian Alps, 26th of July 2016, Zygaena filipendulae?

[nomad]

Zygaenidae are among my favourite moths, so it was nice to see some special species from Germany. 

[luehdorfia]

Nomad, that is fantastic to hear, I also love Zygaenidae, especially when they are freshly emerged and still have that silver shining all over them. Here I took a photograph out of the book "Die Schmetterlinge Baden-Württembergs" which is a compilation of all the butterflies of the state Baden-Württemberg in South Germany.
Here you can see on the upper left the three specimens are Zygaena transalpina of the hippocrepidis strain, the locality of the pictures above is also directly at that place, and on the upper right side you can see Zygaena transalpina of the transalpinoid strain. The difference it says is that hippocrepidis often has very confluent red dots, and in the transalpinoid strain the dots are clearly seperated. On the lower picture you can see Zygaena angelicae elegans, which looks similar but the wings are more pointed and slimmer.  And specimens with five dots seem to be very rare in the localities at the Swabian Alps as the specimen on the bottom.
As Axel Hofmann writes in the accompanying article, there are hybrid populations of transalpina and angelicae elegans in the Swabian Alps, and at every Fausta-locality the angelicae elegans will also appear a few weeks before the fausta, but not at every elegans locality fausta will appear.
It looks pretty clear now but seeing them in nature, makes it very difficult to seperate.

[luehdorfia]

After consulting some collections and advice from real zygaenidae expert Axel Hofmann, I now know what was what.
In picture 2 and 3 you can see Zygaena transalpina hippocrepidis, in picture 4 Zygaena filipendulae.
In that location flight time of Zygaena angelicae elegans was already finished well before the end of July, so we only had Zygaena transalpina, filipendulae and fausta flying at the same time.
Mid of June you would seen Zygaena angelicae elegans in that location, which is a quite interesting species, endemic to these mountains and looks quite different than any other angelicae ssp.

[nomad]

The appeal of Zygaenidae, so many endemics. Everything here is an endemic subspecies. Although some are very rare and local and two are protected.  Two other ssp have become extinct. Another pleasing aspect of these moths is that they can produce some interesting and extreme aberrations.

[luehdorfia]

Dec 22, 2016 7:16:04 GMT nomad said:

The appeal of Zygaenidae, so many endemics. Everything here is an endemic subspecies. Although some are very rare and local and two are protected.  Two other ssp have become extinct. Another pleasing aspect of these moths is that they can produce some interesting and extreme aberrations.

Zygaenidae aberrations are my favorite, I found a very nice Z.transalpina hippocreppidis this summer which was almost completely red, with a little black left at the edges of the wings. If you come across some nice Zygaena aberrations in old collections please share them with us.
I remember seeing some the Zygaena ab. flava in Clive Pratts collection this fall, but forgot which sp. it was.

[nomad]

I certainly will.    

[joee30]

Thanks for the wonderful pictures! It brings back memories from when I was stationed in Grafenwohr, Germany. Miss hiking and fishing that wonderful country.