Erebia

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Endopterygota
Superordo: Panorpida
Cladus: Amphiesmenoptera
Ordo: Lepidoptera
Subordo: Glossata
Cladus: Coelolepida
Cladus: Myoglossata
Cladus: Neolepidoptera
Infraordo: Heteroneura
Cladus: Eulepidoptera
Cladus: Ditrysia
Cladus: Apoditrysia
Cladus: Obtectomera
Superfamilia: Papilionoidea

Familia: Nymphalidae
Subfamilia: Satyrinae
Tribus: Satyrini
Subtribus: Erebiina
Genus: Erebia
Species: (108) E. adyte – E. aethiopella – E. aethiops – E. ajanensis – E. alberganus – E. alcmena – E. anyuica – E. arctica – E. atramentaria – E. calcaria – E. callias – E. calypso – E. cassioides – E. chastilovi – E. christi – E. claudina – E. cyclopius – E. dabanensis – E. deputatska – E. disa – E. discoidalis – E. dromulus – E. edda – E. embla – E. epiphron – E. epipsodea – E. epistygne – E. erinnyn – E. eriphyle – E. eugenia – E. euryale – E. fasciata – E. flavofasciata – E. fletcheri – E. frodo – E. gorge – E. gorgone – E. grandis – E. graucasica – E. haberhaueri – E. hewitsoni – E. hispania – E. iranica – E. jeniseiensis – E. kalmuka – E. karamayensis – E. kefersteini – E. kindermanni – E. kozhantshikovi – E. lafontainei – E. lefebvrei – E. lena – E. ligea – E. mackinleyensis – E. magdalena – E. mancinus – E. manto – E. maurisius – E. medusa – E. melampus – E. melancholica – E. melas – E. meolans – E. meta – E. mnestra – E. montana – E. neoridas – E. neriene – E. niphonica – E. nivalis – E. occulta – E. ocnus – E. oeme – E. orientalis – E. ottomana – E. palarica – E. pandrose – E. pawlowskii – E. pharte – E. pluto – E. polaris – E. progne – E. pronoe – E. przhevalskii – E. radians – E. rhodopensis – E. rondoui – E. rossii – E. sachaensis – E. saita – E. scipio – E. serotina – E. sibo – E. sokolovi – E. sthennyo – E. stirius – E. stubbendorfii – E. stygne – E. styx – E. sudetica – E. theano – E. tianschanica – E. triarius – E. troubridgei – E. turanica – E. tyndarus – E. usgentensis – E. vidleri – E. wanga – E. youngi – E. zapateri
Name

Erebia Dalman, 1816

Type species: Papilio ligea Linnaeus, 1758
Synonymy

Erebia Dalman, 1816: 58.
Atercolatus Bang-Haas, 1938
Epigea Hübner, [1819] (junior objective syn.)
Gorgo Hübner, [1819]
Marica Hübner, [1819]
Medusia Verity, 1953
Oreina Westwood, 1841 (preocc. Chevrolat, 1836)
Phorcis Hübner, [1819]
Simplicia Verity, 1957 (preocc. Guenée, 1854)
Simplospinosia Verity, 1957
Syngea Hübner, [1819]
Triariia Verity, 1953
Truncaefalcia Verity, 1953

References

Belik, A.G. 2001. Notes on the taxonomy and geographical distribution of Erebia dabanensis Erschoff, 1871 and Erebia fletcheri Elwes, 1899 with the description of two new subspecies from the South Transbaikal, Russia. (Lepidoptera: Satyridae). Atalanta 32(1/2): 197–215.
Churkin, S.V.. New taxa of butterflies from Transbaikalia, Russia (Lepidoptera: Satyridae; Nymphalidae). Atalanta 29(1–4): 107–124.
Churkin, S.V. & Tuzov, V.K. 2000. Revision of the Erebia radians species-group from Tian-Shan and Pamiro-Alai regions (Lepidoptera, Satyridae). Atalanta 31(1/2): 87–112.
Dalman, J.W. 1816. Försök till systematisk Uppställning af Sveriges Fjärillar. Kungliga svenska Vetenskaps Acadamiens Handlingar Serial 1b. 1816: 48–101, 199–225, 2 pls. Reference page.
Dubatolov, V.V. , Y. P. Korshunov , P. Yu. Gorbunov , O. E. Kosterin & Lvovsky, A.L. 1998. A review of Erebia ligea-complex (Lepidoptera, Satyridae) from Eastern Asia. Transactions of the Lepidopterological Society of Japan 49(3): 177–193. Abstract and full article
Hirano, Y. & S. Hirano 2011. A new species of Erebia (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) from Ust'-Yansky District, Sakha Republic, FE Russia. Lepidoptera Science 62(4): 143–147.
Korb, S.K. 2010. New taxa of satyrids and blues (Lepidoptera: Satyridae, Lycaenidae) from Kirghizia. Eversmannia 23–24: 10–16.
Korb, S.K. 2013. New taxa of Satyridae from Central Asia (Lepidoptera). Eversmannia 33: 10–16.
Korb, S.K. & Bolshakov, L.V. 2011. A catalogue of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoformes) of the former USSR. Second edition, reformatted and updated. Eversmannia, Supplement 2. Abstract. Reference page.
Korshunov, Y. & Gorbunov, O., 1995: Butterflies of the Asian part of Russia. Ekaterinburg State Yniversity Press, Ekaterinburg: 1–202. [In Russian] Reference page.
Korshunov, Y.P. & Nikolaev, S.L., 2004. Taxonomical review of butterflies of the Erebia euryale and E. adyte complexes (Lepidoptera, Satyridae). Euroasian Entomological Journal, 3(1): 47–58. [in Russian]. Reference page.
de Lesse, H. 1957: Une nouvelle espèce d'Erebia pour la faune suisse. Lambillionea, 57(1–4): 6–10. Reference page.
Lukhtanov, V.A. 1999. Neue taxa und synonyma zentralasiatischer Tagfalter (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea). Atalanta 30(1/4): 135–150. PDF. Reference page.
Lukhtanov, V., Surakov, A., Tikhonov, V. & Zakharov, E. 2019. Taxonomic Rearrangement of the Erebia tyndarus Species Group (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae) Based on an Analysis of COI Barcodes, Morphology, and Geographic Distribution. Folia Biologica 67(4): 149–157. DOI: 10.3409/fb_67-4.15 Open access. Reference page.
Mortera, H. 2001. A new subspecies of Erebia pronoe (Esper, 1780) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyridae) from Picos de Europa (Asturias, Spain). Bulletin Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa 28: 63–65.Full article (PDF)
Murayama, S. 1964. Neue Tagfalterformen aus Japan und Korea. Zeitschrift der Wiener Entomologischen Gesellschaft 49: 35-37. Full article (PDF). Reference page.
Nakatani, T. 2012. On a little known species of genus Erebia (Lepidoptera Nymphalidae) in China. Transactions of the Lepidopterological Society of Japan, 63(2): 61–64. Abstract
Pelham, J. P. 2006. A Skeleton Checklist of the Butterflies of the United States and Canada. (PDF) (HTML)
Takahasi, M. & Nakatani, T. 2010. A new subspecies of Erebia fletcheri Elwes (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae) from the Myaochan Mountains, Far-Eastern Russia [in Japanese]. Transactions of the Lepidopterological Society of Japan 61(3): 221–227.
Tennent, W.J. 2008. A checklist of the satyrine genus Erebia (Lepidoptera) (1758–2006). Zootaxa 1900: 1–109. Abstract and excerpt (PDF)
Tshikolovets, V.V. 1992. Eine kommentierte Artenliste der Tagfalter des Trans-alaj-Gebirges (Pamir-Alaj) nebst Beschreibung der Erebia progne samodurovi subspec. nov. (Lepidoptera, Rhopalocera). Atalanta 23(1–2): 169–193.
Winhard, W. 2020b. Eine neue Unterart von Erebia sudetica Staudinger, 1861 aus Österreich (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae, Satyrini). Atalanta 51(1-4): 85-86. Reference page.
Yakovlev, R.V. 2012. Checklist of Butterflies (Papilionoidea) of the Mongolian Altai Mountains, including descriptions of new taxa. Nota Lepidopterologica 35(1): 51-96. PDF. Reference page.

Vernacular names
беларуская: Чарнушкі

Erebia is a Holarctic genus of brush-footed butterflies, family Nymphalidae. Most of the about 90–100 species (see also below) are dark brown or black in color, with reddish-brown to orange or more rarely yellowish wing blotches or bands. These usually bear black spots within, which sometimes have white center spots.

This genus has found it easy to adapt to arid and especially cold conditions. Most of its members are associated with high-altitude lands, forest clearings or high latitude and tundra. Erebia species are frequent in the Alps, Rocky Mountains, subarctic and even Arctic regions, and the cooler parts of Central Asia. In fact, the North American term for these butterflies is alpines. Palearctic species are collectively known as ringlets or arguses. However, none of these terms is used exclusively for this genus.
Contents

1 Taxonomy and systematics
1.1 Species list
2 Gallery
3 Erebia comparison
4 See also
5 Footnotes
6 References
7 External links

Taxonomy and systematics

The genus Erebia was erected by Johan Wilhelm Dalman in 1816. As type species, the Arran brown—described as Papilio ligea by Carl Linnaeus in 1758—was chosen. This is a very complex genus with over 1300 taxa, but a massive proportion of these are junior synonyms. Some of the available names are listed by Vladimir Lukhtanov.[1] A fully comprehensive taxonomic checklist (i.e., without discussing synonymy and relationships) was published in 2008.[2]

Only three years after the genus' inception, the known species were reviewed by Jacob Hübner.[3] He established no less than five new genera for a fraction of what would eventually be named as "species" of Erebia. But things hardly improved as more and more of the diversity of these butterflies came to note. In Europe, a large number of Erebia taxa was described from the Alps. In the 19th and early 20th century the Alps were a popular destination for butterfly collectors and specimens of Alpine butterflies were very profitable for dealers. The dealers, mostly German, not only sold specimens, but were entomologists, entomological book dealers, entomological authors and publishers. Examples are Fritz Rühl, Alexander Heyne, Otto Staudinger, Andreas and Otto Bang-Haas and, in Paris, Achille and Émile Deyrolle.

This, together with the then-popular, even obsessive study of variation by entomologists – examples are James William Tutt, George Wheeler, Felix Bryk and Brisbane Charles Somerville Warren – led to very many names being applied to what may be or much more likely may not be biological species or subspecies. A further problem is the use of the term "variety". Authors of that time used this for an individual variant, a group of individuals morphologically but not otherwise related, seasonal forms, temperature-related forms, or geographic races; it was later usually taken to mean the last subspecies though this is often suspected to have been premature.

Eventually, it became common to arrange supposed species and subspecies to "species groups" (not superspecies, but an informal phenetic arrangement) as pioneered by B.C.S. Warren,[4] and attempt to resolve their true nature by and by. As molecular phylogenetic studies add to the available data, it is becoming clear that most "varieties" that have at least been commonly considered subspecies in the latter 20th century are indeed lineages distinct enough to warrant some formal degree of recognition. Another result of recent research is confirmation of the theory that this genus contains many glacial relict taxa, e.g., in the brassy ringlet group (E. tyndarus and similar species).[5]

The number of currently recognized Erebia species is given variously around 90-100, as developments happen so fast that it is hard for authors to remain up to date regarding the newest changes.[5]
Species list

As of early 2008, the following good species and some rather distinct subspecies are listed:[6]

Erebia aethiopella (Hoffmannsegg, 1806) – false Mnestra ringlet
Erebia aethiops (Esper, 1777) – Scotch argus
Erebia ajanensis Ménétriés, 1857
Erebia alberganus (Prunner, 1798) – almond ringlet or almond-eyed ringlet
Erebia alcmena Grum-Grshimailo, 1891
Erebia alini (Bang-Haas, 1937) (disputed)
Erebia anyuica Kurenzov, 1966 – scree alpine
Erebia arctica R.Poppius, 1906
Erebia atramentaria O.Bang-Haas, 1927
Erebia calcaria Lorković, 1949 – Lorkovic's brassy ringlet
Erebia callias Edwards, 1871
Erebia (callias) altajana Staudinger, 1901
Erebia (callias) callias – Colorado alpine
Erebia (callias) sibirica Staudinger, 1881
Erebia (callias) simulata Warren, 1933
Erebia cassioides (Reiner & Hohenwarth, 1792) – common brassy ringlet
Erebia (cassioides) arvernensis Oberthür 1908 – western brassy ringlet
Erebia (cassioides) carmenta Fruhstorfer, 1907 – western brassy ringlet
Erebia (cassioides) macedonica Buresch, 1918
Erebia christi Rätzer, 1890 – Raetzer's ringlet
Erebia claudina (Borkhausen, 1789) – white speck ringlet
Erebia cyclopius (Eversmann, 1844)
Erebia dabanensis Erschoff, 1871
Erebia disa (Thunberg, 1791) – Arctic ringlet or disa alpine
Erebia discoidalis Kirby, 1837 – red-disked alpine
Erebia dromulus Staudinger, 1901
Erebia edda Ménétriés, 1851
Erebia embla (Thunberg, 1791) – Lapland ringlet
Erebia epiphron (Knoch, 1783) – mountain ringlet or small mountain ringlet
Erebia epipsodea Butler, 1868 – common alpine
Erebia epistygne (Hübner, 1819) – spring ringlet
Erebia erinnyn Warren, 1932
Erebia eriphyle (Freyer, 1836) – eriphyle ringlet
Erebia eugenia Churkin, 2000
Erebia euryale (Esper, 1805) – large ringlet
Erebia fasciata Butler, 1868 – banded alpine
Erebia flavofasciata Heyne, 1895 – yellow-banded ringlet
Erebia fletcheri Elwes, 1899
Erebia gorge (Esper, 1805) – silky ringlet
Erebia gorgone – Gavarnie ringlet
Erebia graucasica Jachontov, 1909
Erebia haberhaueri Staudinger, 1881
Erebia hewitsoni Lederer, 1864
Erebia hispania Butler, 1868 – Spanish brassy ringlet
Erebia inuitica Wyatt, 1966 (disputed)
Erebia iranica Grum-Grshimailo, 1895
Erebia jeniseiensis Trybom, 1877
Erebia kalmuka Alphéraky, 1881
Erebia kefersteini (Eversmann, 1851)
Erebia kindermanni Staudinger, 1881
Erebia kozhantshikovi Sheljuzhko, 1925
Erebia lafontainei (Troubridge & Philip, 1983) – reddish alpine
Erebia lefebvrei (Boisduval, [1828]) – Lefèbvre's ringlet
Erebia ligea (Linnaeus, 1758) – Arran brown
Erebia mackinleyensis (Gunder, 1932) – Mt. McKinley alpine
Erebia magdalena Strecker, 1880 – Magdalena alpine
Erebia mancinus Doubleday, [1849] – taiga alpine
Erebia manto ([Schiffermüller], 1775) – yellow-spotted ringlet
Erebia maurisius Lukhtanov & Lukhtanov, 1994 (might be Erebia brimo (Böber, 1809))
Erebia medusa (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1975) – woodland ringlet
Erebia medusa polaris Staudinger, 1871 – Arctic woodland ringlet
Erebia melampus (Fuessli, 1775) – lesser mountain ringlet
Erebia melancholica Herrich-Schäffer, [1846]
Erebia melas (Herbst, 1796) – black ringlet
Erebia meolans (Prunner, 1798) – Piedmont ringlet
Erebia meta Staudinger, 1886
Erebia mnestra (Hübner, [1803-1804]) – Mnestra's ringlet
Erebia montana (de Prunner, 1798) – marbled ringlet
Erebia neoridas (Boisduval, [1828]) – autumn ringlet
Erebia neriene (Böber, 1809)
Erebia niphonica Janson, 1877
Erebia nivalis Lorković & Lesse, 1954 – de Lesse's brassy ringlet
Erebia occulta Roos & Kimmich, 1983 – Eskimo alpine
Erebia ocnus (Eversmann, 1843)
Erebia oeme (Hübner, [1803-1804]) – bright-eyed ringlet
Erebia orientalis Elwes, 1900
Erebia ottomana Herrich-Schäffer, [1851] – Ottoman brassy ringlet
Erebia (ottomana) benacensis Warren, 1933
Erebia palarica Chapman, 1905 – Chapman's ringlet
Erebia pandrose (Borkhausen, 1788) – dewy ringlet
Erebia pawlowskii Ménétriés, 1859 – yellow-dotted alpine or Theano alpine[7]
Erebia pharte (Hübner, [1803-1804]) – blind ringlet
Erebia pluto (de Prunner, 1798) – sooty ringlet
Erebia progne Grum-Grshimailo, 1890
Erebia pronoe (Esper, 1780) – water ringlet
Erebia radians Staudinger, 1886
Erebia rhodopensis Nicholl, 1900 - Nicholl's ringlet
Erebia rondoui Oberthür 1908 (previously in E. cassioides)
Erebia rossii (Curtis, 1835) – Arctic–alpine or Ross's alpine
Erebia rurigena (disputed)
Erebia sachaensis Dubatolov, 1992
Erebia scipio Boisduval, 1832 – larche ringlet
Erebia serotina Descimon & de Lesse, 1953 – Descimon's ringlet
Erebia sibo (Alphéraky, 1881)
Erebia sokolovi Lukhtanov, 1990
Erebia sthennyo Graslin, 1850 – false dewy ringlet
Erebia stirius (Godart, [1824]) – Styrian ringlet
Erebia stubbendorfii Ménétriés, 1846
Erebia styx (Freyer, 1834) – Stygian ringlet
Erebia sudetica Staudinger, 1861 – Sudeten ringlet
Erebia theano (Tauscher, 1806) – Theano alpine
Erebia tianschanica Heyne, [1894]
Erebia transcaucasica Warren, 1950 (previously in E. graucasica)
Erebia triarius (de Prunner, 1798) – de Prunner's ringlet
Erebia troubridgei (Dubatolov, 1992)
Erebia turanica Erschoff, [1877]
Erebia tyndarus (Esper, 1781) – Swiss brassy ringlet
Erebia usgentensis Heyne, [1894]
Erebia vidleri Elwes, 1898 – northwest alpine or Vidler's alpine
Erebia wanga Bremer, 1864
Erebia youngi Holland, 1900 – Yukon alpine or four-dotted alpine
Erebia zapateri Oberthür, 1875 – Zapater's ringlet

Gallery

First of the three Erebia plates in the 1915 Macrolepidoptera of the World, edited by Adalbert Seitz. This work was published near the height of taxonomic confusion about these butterflies.

Another Macrolepidoptera of the World plate, showing larger species.

Third Macrolepidoptera of the World plate, of the 31 named taxa depicted, probably less than 10 are actual species.