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Clouded Apollo. (50)
peter_stoeckl Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1629 W: 287 N: 3646] (10219)
Clouded Apollo.

Slowly flying, enjoying extended rests on flowers, the archaic looking Clouded Apollo with its semitransparent wings and furry body is a willing target for photographers who are lucky enough to find them.

Being well acquainted with that species that can be locally abundand at some mountain meadows in the Vienna Woods, I would not have expected to see it on an isolated hill with xerothermic vegetation in the Eastern lowlands of Austria, overlooking the Hungarian plains. That species of weakly flying butterflies may live there in a very restricted area in splendid isolation from both the Alps and the Carpathian mountains since the times of ice age.

Here, a male individual is sucking nectar from sweet smelling Erysimum odoratum on a wide arid meadow at the edge of the dense peak forests of oak, beech and lime trees, at an elevation of 400m.


Parnassius mnemosyne (Linnaeus, 1758)
Family: Papilionidae
Subfamily: Parnassiinae

Wingspan 50 - 60 mm

Clouded Apollo, Schwarzer Apollo, Zwarte apollovlinder, Mnemosynefjäril, Pikkuapollo, Juodasis apolonas, Niepylak mnemozyna, Jasoň chochlačkový, Jasoň dymnivkový, Semi-Apollon, Blanca de Asso.

Widely distributed over Europe and the Mideast, eastwards to Siberia, the species is confined to small scattered colonies to be found in the Pyrenees, Massif Central, the Alpine mountains, the Apennines, the Balkan, Southern Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Southern Poland, Scandinavia.

Considered to be a rare and endangered species, the Clouded Apollo may be met in May and June in the hilly parts of the Austrian Alps at elevations between 500m and 1500m. With its caterpillars feeding on Corydalis that is growing in the shadow of humid deciduous forests, and the butterfly depending on open meadows rich with flowers, the species depends on the close neighbourhood of both habitats.


Literature:

Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: Die Tagfalter Europas und Nordwestafrikas, Stuttgart 1998.

C.Jonko: Butterflies and Moths of Europe: www.lepidoptera.pl


The camera:
SONY DSC-H5, 3072 x 2304 pixel, sRGB, 17mm macro-zoom setting (equiv. 100mm at conventional 35mm SLR), F/4, 1/250 sec., ISO-125, -0.3 bias; no tripod, no flash; 18.05.2008, 13:58.

Postwork:
Photoshop Elements, slightly cropped, downsized to the web, selectively resharpened, levels slightly adjusted.


> Wings closed.


Thank you for looking.
Have a very good day.
Altered Image #1

peter_stoeckl Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1629 W: 287 N: 3646] (10219)
Wings closed.
Edited by:peter_stoeckl Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1629 W: 287 N: 3646] (10219)
Wings closed, and both the butterfly and me fighting against the strong wind on that day.

The camera: SONY DSC-H5, 3072 x 2304 pixel, sRGB, 15mm macro-zoom setting (equiv. 90mm at conventional 35mm SLR), F/4, 1/200 sec., ISO-125, -0.3 bias; no tripod, no flash; 18.05.2008, 14:06.

Postwork: Photoshop Elements, slightly cropped, downsized to the web, selectively resharpened, levels slightly adjusted.

Hope you enjoy.