Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 4() 1959
Crymodes platinea Tr. z Pienin
[Crymodes platinea Tr. from the Pieniny Mts.]
Abstract:
SUMMARY. The author collected in June 1949 on the Castle-Hill at Czorsztyn (Western Pieniny) a xerothermic species of moth C. platinea Tr. This species was hitherto not observed in Poland and its distribution in the Palearctics is restricted to mountains of Central and South Europe and Asia Minor. The author’s further observations of this species enabled to define precisely the reach of the biotope with which it is biologically connected. It has been found that this species is a distinct stenotope and, according to the author’s definition a calcitobiont. Its position in the Pieniny Mts. is of the character of a north-eastern disjunction. Apparently this species is a relic of the Pleistocene Epoch, from the period of the last interglacial, the Masovien II. Accepting another hypothesis of its origin in the Pieniny Mts. its occurrence might also be referred to the post-glacial period with a lesser probability, however. Apart from many imagines the author has found as well some caterpillars feeding on Hippocrepis comosa L. In. 1953 the author has found another position of this moth in Zielone Skałki range, situated 1 km from the first one. It proved that the second position is of a deteriorating character on account of biocenotic changes caused by human activity (afforestation). Attempts of comparative-morphological analysis of materials from the Pieniny Mts and Bavaria did not reveal any essential differences.
