Zygaena diaphana Staudinger, 1887

Host plants:
Eryngium amethystinum, locally also E. campestre and possibly other species of Eryngium. In Anatolia presumably also Falcaria.

Habitat:
Zygaena diaphana usually inhabits dry and warm mountains meadows and pastures usually above 900m.

Life cycle:
The larvae hibernate and are mature in April and May, in higher altitudes also in early June. I recorded half-grown larvae (quite black especially after moults) in early April 2022 (Siatista, N-Greece) and mature ones in higher altitudes (Chelmos, 1700-1800m) in early June 2019. The adults occur quite early between May and early or mid-July. In mid-May 2017 and early June 2019 I recorded them already in altitudes of 1800m.

Remarks:
Zygaena diaphana primarily has differently colored caterpillars (compared to central European minos), but only minor differences in the genitals. There is also another larval host plant within the same family Apiaceae. Both the different caterpillar coloration and the (closely related) caterpillar food plants are nothing unusual in Zygaena species, especially in species with a larger distribution area.

Overall, it can be stated that the populations in the mountains of the southern Balkan Peninsula certainly differ from those in central Europe, but that these smaller differences are not sufficient to justify the independence of diaphana at Zygaena diaphana level. Nahirnić (2019) justifies this independence with the supposed syntopic occurrence of minos and diaphana on Mount Baba (North Macedonia), but this is only based on collection material (although genital differences are not clearly visible to me). You would have to study the larval ecology there and see if there are two separable populations. However, I dare to doubt this and therefore follow other colleagues who are more knowledgeable in zygaenology than me, such as Axel Hofmann. But further research is urgently needed.

The two taxa are only placed on separate pages on my website for practical reasons, not because I am currently convinced of Zygaena diaphana independence of diaphana.

The taxon occurs in the southern Balkan Peninsula (Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, S-Serbia and especially Greece southward to Mount Taygetos) and probably further via Turkey to Iran.

Literature:
Nahirnić, A. (2019): Zygaena diaphana Staudinger, 1887 bona species (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae). - SHILAP Revista de Lepidopterología 47 (186): 341-347.