Muschampia alta (Schwingenschuss, 1942)

Host plants:
The larvae feed on Phlomis fruticosa, supposedly locally also on other Phlomis, but these should be of minor importance.

Habitat:
Muschampia alta inhabits various dry and warm habitats with the host plant. It prefers coastal areas, but is also found at inland sites, especially in the south, up to 1200m, sometimes even higher. It occurs on rocky slopes, open woodlands, bushy pastures, ruderal places and generally in garigues/maquis.

Life cycle:
The larva hibernates within the egg shell and hatches in the first spring (in the south often already in January-February). As it is the case in M. proto the L1 larva immediately proceeds to the tip of a shoot where it is well protected within the youngest leaves repectively leaf primordia. These are usually surrounded onion-like by already more developed, older leaves. Thus even late winter episodes may not affect the larvae. The L1 larva differs distinctally from that of M. proto. It is grayish brown with light flecks and not reddish brown. Later on the larvae spin together more leaves of the shoot tips to form a shelter (tube), sometimes also only single leaves to their upper side.
Like in M. proto the mature larvae go in diapause (then becoming much lighter creamy) for weeks or even months resulting in an elongated generation between June and well into October (peak between late July and mid-September).
The eggs are deposited singly on lower sides of leaves or - more often - on stems of the host plants.

Remarks:
Muschampia alta occurs very locally in southern Italy including Sicily. It is more common in the southern Balkans (especially in Albania and western, central and southern Greece), from southern Croatia and very rarely Bosnia southward.

Literature:
Hinojosa, J.C., Dapporto, L., Brockmann, E., Dinca, V., Tikhonov, V., Grishin, N., Lukhtanov, V.A. & R. Vila (2021): Overlooked cryptic diversity in Muschampia (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) adds two species to the European butterfly fauna. — Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2020, 20: 1–13.