Aporia crataegi (Linnaeus, 1758)

Kosterin, Oleg E., 2023, Early summer aspect of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of Republic of Khakassia as examined in 2000, with some additional data, Amurian Zoological Journal XV (2), pp. 325-354 : 340

Aporia crataegi (Linnaeus, 1758)

Specimens: 1\NNE Parnaya, 2♂; 2\NE Kopyovo, 1♀; 6\SE Efremkino, 1♂, 1♀; 9\Terensug headwaters, 1♂; 14\Sayanskiy Pass, 2♂.

Visual registrations: 10\Terensug, many; 12\ Dzhabash, many; 13\Ona, few.

Observations: In general this is the most abundant Siberian butterfly flying mostly in June. During our trip its abundance varied over localities but in general they were already declining at the end of their flight period, with all females already having transparent ‘windows’ on their forewings where the scales were missed because of repeated but vain attempts of males to mate. Curiously it was the most abundant butterfly in highlands of the Sayanskiy Pass where it was evenly dispersed over slopes, tops and saddles. All over Siberia, A. crataegi migrates actively via poorly understood directions ( Gorbunov, Kosterin 2003), so there is no doubt that these butterflies reached the highlands in the course of such migration.