Slo.: travniki lisar - syn.: Melanargia turcica Bois., Melanargia procida Herbst - Habitat: mountain pasture; slightly inclined terrain, southeast aspect; colluvial, calcareous ground; full sun, dry place; elevation 605 m (2.000 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil. Comment: Melanargia galathea is beautiful, quite large (4 - 5 cm across) and very common butterfly in Trenta Valley. In good years hundreds of them can appear in July. Eggs are laid on grass stems. The larvae feed on various grasses. They immediately enter hibernation, survive the winter and only feed the following spring on fresh grasses. Caterpillars are green with a darker green line along the body. The black butterfly with red patches on wings is probably also quite common six-spot burnet Zygaena filipendulae (Figs. 13, 15 and 16). Ref.: (1) http://www.lepiforum.de/lepiwiki.pl?Melanargia_Galathea (access 6.8.2017) (2) http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Britain%20-%20Melanargia%20galathea.htm (access 6.8.2017) (3) H. Garms, L. Borm, Fauna Europas, Georg Westermann Verlag 1977, (translated to Slovenian - Mladinska knjiga, 1981), p 400.
Slo.: glogova belinka - Habitat: Mountain pasture, moderately southeast inclined mountain slope; calcareous ground, dry and sunny place, exposed to direct rain, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, elevation 620 m (2.050 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. - Comment: Aporia crataegi is another butterfly, which is widespread (from America over Europe and Asia to Japan) and quite common. These butterflies are frequently seen also in Trenta valley. They are quite big and beautiful in spite of the fact that they have no colorful decoration on their wings. Thin, almost completely translucent, silvery wings supported by a perfectly designed structure of black 'bones', hairy, black body and long antlers, white at the tip, could only be admired. The butterfly's caterpillars are bound to two feeding plants blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) and hawthorn (Crataegus sp.). Both are common in Trenta valley. Butterflies feed on nectar of flowers of many species including Betonica alopecuros (yellow flowers), Valeriana collina (whitish-pink flowers) and Pimpinella saxifraga (white) as shown on my pictures. All of them show females. Their front edge of forewings is brown and about one half of the terminal thicker part of the antlers is white, while males have black and white wings edge and only the tip of the thicker terminal part of the antlers is white spotted. - Aporia crataegi were once common in southern England. However, in 1920s they suddenly completely disappeared. Several attempts to reintroduce them failed. The real explanation why this happened remains unknown. The same is true for many regions in Europe where this species is in dramatic decline. - Ref.: (1) http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Europe%20-%20Aporia%20crataegi.htm (2) http://www.lepiforum.de/lepiwiki.pl?Aporia_Crataegi (3) Fauna Europas, Bestimmungs lexikon, George Westermann Velag, Braunschweig (1997), translated to Slovenian, Mladinaka Knjiga, Ljubljana (1981).