| Southern White Admiral (Limenitis reducta (Staudinger, 1901)) |
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Scientific name: Limenitis reducta (Staudinger, 1901) Common name: Southern White Admiral French name: Sylvain azuré Order: Lepidoptera Suborder: Rhopalocera Family: Nymphalidae Subfamily: Limenitininae Wingspan: 48-64 mm. Biotope: Open woodlands. Geographic area: Northern Spain, south-eastern France, Switzerland, Italy, east to Greece and Turkey. Flight time: May to August. Number of generations : Up to three generations in the southern part of its range. Caterpillar: Green with a reddish head. The lateral sides of the body and the underside are reddish too. The back bears spiny brown scoli (kinds of protruding points). Host plant: Honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.) |
The upper side of the Southern White Admiral's wings is a very dark brownish black colour with a blue metallic sheen. The wings are crossed by a wide white median stripe. The fore wings show a white discal patch. The White Admiral (Limenitis camilla) does not show this discal patch. The underside of the wings is greyish orange. The hind wing is white on the basal area and shows a single row of black post discal dots. There is a double row on the White Admiral. The Southern White Admiral over winters as a caterpillar, in a small shelter constructed with a leaf and silk threads. This shelter, called hibernaculum, is secured to a honeysuckle stem. |
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While I am hiking, I have almost always my DSLR camera with my 300 mm lenses close to my hand. I am able to shoot pictures of birds, mammals, and also butterflies and dragonflies. This is a very convenient multi-usage lenses However, its minimum focus distance didn't enable me to shoot a picture of a beautiful Southern White Admiral landed on my shoe while I was hiking in the Esterel mountains. I have been able to shoot a picture of this other one, with rather damaged wings, about two hundred of meters away. I have then added a new species to my checklist. |
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You can clearly see the discal patch and the single row of black dots on this picture. |
André Bon November 2011
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