Erynnis marloyi (Boisduval, 1834)

Host plants:
Oviposition takes place exclusively on shrubby Rosaceae. Here low growing plants in xerothermic situations are clearly preferred. I found eggs and young caterpillars in the Greek Askio Mountains in May 2010 exclusively at the pear Pyrus spinosa. Besides apparently also Prunus species are involved such as Prunus cocomilia (after Lafranchis 2003) or probably Prunus spinosa (will be accepted without any problems in breeding). Maybe there are further host plants (Crataegus?).

Habitat:
Erynnis marloyi inhabits large, xerothermic, open to half open grasslands, preferably in the mountains on rocky slopes. In the case of Askio these are very sparse, continental pastures with only a few small oak forests but mostly with shrub-rich grasslands.

Life cycle:
Erynnis marloyi flies from late March to early June. The caterpillars can be found from May to July. In many areas a partial second generation is observed in July and August, which represents only a very small part of the population in the northern regions (e.g. Askio), but is more regular in Southern Greece. The descending caterpillars of this partial second generation are likely to be found from August to October.

The eggs are laid according to own observations from 5 to 50 centimeters above the ground xclusively on branches or stems and not leaves. The host plants are usually solitary in rocky embankments, on rock or other warm places.

The moths usually occur in low densities, are very unstable and often difficult to observe, so that the egg and caterpillar search is much better suited for species detection. The butterfly exhibit hill-topping (Lafranchis 2003) for mating and are therefore more easily observed on ridges and peaks.

The caterpillars live in shelters made of spun leaves on the plant. Pupation takes place in a housing probably close to the ground. Although direct observations of the overwintering stage lack, I believe that hibernation takes place as mature caterpillar which pupates immediately in the spring, similar to Erynnis tages. Possible but less likely would be a hibernation in the pupal stage.

Endangerment factors:
Erynnis marloyi is threatened by local infrastructure measures. In addition, a long-term decline would be possible if grazing would be abandoned with subsequent succession. The currently observed overgrazing of some sites of Erynnis marloyi on the other hand seems to be no problem, because the spiny and woody oviposition plants are affected thereby only slightly.

Remarks:
Erynnis marloyi occurs in Europe only on the southern Balkan Peninsula and some islands of the eastern Aegean. Sites are known from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania and Greece. Only in Greece the butterfly occurs locally more common, as in the Peloponnese. In the Aegean, Erynnis marloyi is found about in Samos, Chios and Lesvos. There are observations also in the north-western Greece (Corfu).

Outside Europe, Erynnis marloyi occurs from Turkey across the Near (Syria, N-Lebanon) and the Middle East (Iran) to Pakistan. In the north, the butterfly reaches the Ukraine.