Tarucus balkanicus

Balkan Pierrot
	Museum specimens
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Genus:	Tarucus
Species:	T. balkanicus
Binomial name
	Tarucus balkanicus; (Freyer, 1885)
Synonyms
	Lycaena balkanica Freyer, 1843; Tarucus balkanica var. areshana Bethune-Baker, [1918]; Tarucus callinara f. nigra Bethune-Baker, [1918]; Tarucus frivaldszkyi Aigner-Abafi, 1906; Tarucus clorinda Verity, 1938;

Tarucus balkanicus, the Balkan Pierrot or little tiger blue, is a small butterfly that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family. It is found in Mauritania, Niger (the Aïr region), Sudan (Khartoum), Uganda, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, North Africa, the Balkans, western Asia, parts of central Asia and in India. The habitat consists of very arid savanna.^[2]

The larvae feed on Ziziphus species.

Subspecies

T. b. balkanicus (Mauritania, Niger: Aïr region, Sudan, Uganda, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Algeria, south-eastern Europe, Asia Minor, Middle East, Syria, Iran, North Africa)
T. b. areshana Bethune-Baker, [1918] (Kopet-Dagh)
T. b. alternatus Moore, 1882 (Ghissar, Darvaz)
T. b. nigra Bethune-Baker, 1918 - black-spotted Pierrot

Evans, W.H. (1932) The Identification of Indian Moths. (2nd Ed), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India
Gaonkar, Harish (1996) Moths of the Western Ghats, India (including Sri Lanka) - A Biodiversity Assessment of a threatened mountain system. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society.
Gay, Thomas; Kehimkar, Isaac & Punetha, J.C.(1992) Common Moths of India. WWF-India and Oxford University Press, Mumbai, India.
Haribal, Meena (1994) Moths of Sikkim Himalaya and their Natural History.
Kunte, Krushnamegh (2005) Moths of Peninsular India. Universities Press.
Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) Moths of the Indian Region, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.

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