Winged Butterfly – Sweden 2008

On 15 May 2008, Sweden Post issued the stamp set which featured the wing of butterfly. The issue stamp depicts the species of butterfly, Apollo or Parnassius apollo, and Dark Green Fritillary or Argynnis aglaja.

Apollo

The Apollo butterfly or Mountain Apollo (Parnassius apollo), is a butterfly of the Papilionidae family.It is found on mountains in Europe usually above 1,000 metres  up to 2,000 m , preferring flowery meadows and mountain pastures.The Apollo is listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals.

The Apollo butterfly (Parnassius apollo) is a beautiful white butterfly, decorated with large black "eye" spots on the forewings and red eye-spots on the hind wings. Its shown on the above stamp and complete view (besides stamp). The picture of Apollo taken from Wikipedia.

Dark Green Fritillary

The Dark Green Fritillary (Argynnis aglaja) is a butterfly of the Nymphalidae family. The insect has a wide range in the Palearctic ecozone - Europe, Morocco, Iran , Siberia, Central Asia, China, Korea and Japan.The characteristic habitat of this butterfly is open, windswept calcareous grassland. However, in some areas it can also be found in woodland clearings and coastal dunes.

The Dark Green Fritillary is a large, powerful, orange and black butterfly. It can be seen flying rapidly in a range of open sunny habitats.The Dark Green Fritillary has an extra row of orange-ringed 'pearls' on the underside of the hind wing. Its seen in the above stamp and full picture which taken from Wikipedia.

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Butterflies of Azerbaijan 2005.

Azerbaijan Post overprinted the previous stamp issued of Butterfly series on the year 2005 by changed the value of stamps. The issuance comprised of three stamps and featured same species of butterfly, Parnassius apollo, Zegris menetho,Pararge Adastroides and species of Moth, Manduca antropos.

Parnassius apollo is a butterfly of the Papilionidae family. Sometime called as The Apollo or Mountain Apollo.It is found on mountains in Europe usually above 1,000 metres up to 2,000 m ,preferring flowery meadows and mountain pastures.It is white with two red, black-edged "eye marks" on its wings. The caterpillar's favourite food plant is stonecrop (Sedum).The Apollo caterpillar lives on larkspur and rock plants and is a velvety blue-black with small orange spots.

Parnassius apollo is on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals and It is protected in other states: the Principality of Liechtenstein, Czech Republic and Poland.Parnassius apollo population in Finland and Sweden decreased drastically during the 1950s.Therefore the Apollo was one of the first species of insects declared endangered in Finland.

Zegris menestho is a butterfly as member of the genus Zegris, family of Papilionoidea.

Manduca atropos is a hawkmoth of the family Sphingidae. Body length, up to 6 cm; wingspread, up to 13 cm. The dark brown thorax has a yellow marking that resembles a human skull (hence the name). The death’s-head moth is distributed in Central and Southern Europe, North Africa, and Southwest Asia. It is found in the central regions of the USSR, in the Ukraine, in the Northern Caucasus, and in Transcaucasia. Most often it is encountered in potato fields. The moth can suck honey from beehives, and when annoyed it emits a squeaky sound. The caterpillars, which are up to 15 cm long, feed primarily on the leaves of solanaceous plants, including the potato.

Pararge Adrastoides is a butterfly of the Nymphalidae family. It is found south-eastern Transcaucasia, Azerbaijan and northern Iran.The wingspan is 42-48 mm. The larvae have been recorded on Festuca species.

Technorati Tags: Azerbaijan,Parnassius apollo,Zegris menestho,Manduca antropos,Pararge adrastoides,butterfly,moth