Introduction

The fauna of Papilionoidea of Mongolia, including the Mongolian Altai, in general, is satisfactorily studied (TSHIKOLOVETS et al., 2009; YAKOVLEV, 2012a). Taxa new to science continue to be still discovered (YAKOVLEV, 2015; DUBATOLOV et al., 2016). The local faunas of western Mongolia Butterflies are described in several papers (YAKOVLEV & DOROSHKIN, 2006; YAKOVLEV, 2012b).

In the recent years in Mongolia, many protected areas have been created. Most often they are aimed at the protection of large mammals, rare bird species, and also at organizing scientific and ecological tourism. Though, local faunas of insects are completely not studied in these areas. In 2010, our expeditionary team managed to work on the territory of the mountain ridge Khara-Adzragyn-Nuruu (South-Western Mongolia, Govi-Altai Aimak [district]) (Fig. 1), which later got the status of “protected area”. The present article gives a brief overview on the collected material.

Material and methods

The collection was performed in two localities, indicated below as (1) and (2). The material was collected with a butterfly net in the daytime, later mounted on pins and labeled.

1. 1. SW Mongolia, Gobi-Altai aimak, Mongolian Altai Mts., Khara-Adzragyn-Nuru Mts., Najtvaryn-Sajr river Valley (upper stream), 13-14-VII-2010, 2500-2850 m, 45º 50’N; 95º 34’E; R. Yakovlev & E. Guskova leg. (Fig. 2).
2. 2. SW Mongolia, Gobi-Altai aimak, Mongolian Altai Mts., Hara-Adzragyn-Nuru Mts., Najtvaryn-Sajr river Valley (under stream), 15-16-VII-2010, 1700-2000 m, 45º 52’N; 95º 30’E; R. Yakovlev & E. Guskova leg. (Fig. 3).

The material deposited in the author’s collection (Barnaul, Russia).

Annotated list of species

(*) - endemic species for Mongolian Fauna

Family Hesperiidae Latreille, 1809

Pyrgus alveus (Hübner, [1803])

(2) 2 ♂ ♂.

Family Papilionidae Latreille, 1802

Parnassius phoebus tsenguun Churkin, 2003

(1) 4 ♂ ♂, 1 ♀.

Papilio machaon Linnaeus, 1758

(1) 2 ♂♂.

Family Pieridae Duponchel, 1835

Pontia edusa (Fabricius, 1777)

(2) 4 ♂♂.

Pieris bryoniae (Hübner, [1806])

(1) 3 ♂♂, 1 ♀.

Colias chrysotheme (Esper, 1781)

(2) 1 ♂, 1 ♀.

Family Lycaenidae Leach, 1815

Lycaena phlaeas (Linnaeus, 1761)

1) 2 ♂♂.

*Tongeia bisudu Zhdanko & Jakovlev, 2001

(2) 1 ♂.

Plebejus argyrognomon (Bergsträsser, 1779)

(2) 4 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀.

Plebejus idas shadzgat Yakovlev, 2012

(1) 12 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀.

Eumedonia eumedon (Esper, 1780)

(2) 4 ♂♂, 1 ♀.

Agriades glandon ustjuzhanini Yakovlev & Churkin, 2003

(1) 11 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀.

Albulina orbitulus jugnei Churkin, 2004

(1) 7 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀.

*Agrodiaetus mediator Dantchenko & Churkin, 2003

(2) 5 ♂♂.

Family Nymphalidae Swainson, 1827

Boeberia parmenio (Boeber, 1809)

(1) 2 ♂♂, (2) 4 ♂♂, 1 ♀.

Coenomympha amaryllis (Stoll, 1782)

(2) 14 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀.

Triphysa nervosa mongolaltaica Dubatolov, Korb & Yakovlev, 2016

(1) 3 ♂♂, 1 ♀.

*Erebia chastilovi Churkin, 2003

(1) 18 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀.

Hyponephele lycaon kerzhneri Yakovlev, 2011

(2) 19 ♂♂.

Hyponephele cadusina (Staudinger, 1881)

(3) 12 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀.

Oeneis nanna (Ménétriés, 1859)

(1) 1 ♂.

Aglais urticae (Linnaeus, 1758)

(1) 2 ♂♂.

Euphydryas iduna eremita Churkin, 2003

(1) 3 ♂♂.

Melitaea cinxia mogoin Churkin & Kolesnichenko, 2005

(2) 12 ♂♂, 6 ♀♀.

Melitaea arcesia dea Churkin & Kolesnichenko, 2003

(1) 11 ♂♂, 7 ♀♀.

Boloria altica (Grum-Grshimailo, 1893)

(1) 22 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀.

Conclusion

Thus, on the territory of Khara-Adzragyn-Nuruu Protected Area, 26 species of Lepidoptera have been found; three of them are endemics of the Mongolian Altai: Tongeia bisudu Zhdanko & Jakovlev, 2001, Agrodiaetus mediator Dantchenko & Churkin, 2003 (Lycaenidae), and Erebia chastilovi Churkin, 2003 (Nymphalidae).

Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by the grant No. 6.2884.2017/4.6 given by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DUBATOLOV, V. V., KORB, S. K. & YAKOVLEV, R. V., 2016.– A review of the genus Triphysa Zeller, 1858 (Lepidoptera, Satyridae).– Biological Bulletin of Bogdan Chmelnitskiy Melitopol State Pedagogical University, 6(1): 445-497.

TSHIKOLOVETS, V. V., YAKOVLEV, R. V. & BALINT, Z., 2009.– The Butterflies of Mongolia: 320 pp. Tshikolovets-Press, Kyiv-Pardubice.

YAKOVLEV, R. V., 2012a.– Checklist of Butterflies (Papilionoidea) of the Mongolian Altai Mountains, including descriptions of new taxa.– Nota lepidopterologica, 35(1): 51-96.

YAKOVLEV, R. V., 2012b.– Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of Arshantyn-Nuruu Range (Western Mongolia).– Amurian zoological journal, 4(1): 54-60. (in Russian)

YAKOVLEV, R. V., 2015.– Two new subspecies of Aricia nicias (Meigen, 1830) from eastern Kazakhstan and western Mongolia (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae).– Entomologist’s Gazette, 66: 249-254.

YAKOVLEV, R. V. & DOROSHKIN, V. V., 2006.– On the fauna of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) of upper stream of Kara-Irtysh river (W. Mongolia).– Eversmannia, 6: 13-26. (in Russian)

Author notes

E-mail: yakovlev_asu@mail.ru