Phengaris rebeli
| Phengaris rebeli | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Lycaenidae |
| Genus: | Phengaris |
| Species: | P. rebeli |
| Binomial name | |
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Phengaris rebeli (Hirschke, 1904) |
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| Synonyms | |
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The Phengaris rebeli (formerly Maculinea rebeli), common name mountain Alcon blue, is a species of butterfly in the Lycaenidae family. It was first found and described in Styria, Austria, on Mount Hochschwab around 1700. Although it was initially classified as a subspecies of P. alcon, a European researcher, Lucien A. Berger, designated it as a separate species in 1946.
Although P. rebeli is found across the Palearctic (see subspecies), it is difficult to determine exactly where they inhabit because of their similarity with P. alcon. In Western Europe they are thought to be concentrated in the Alps and in Southern Europe.
Behavioral ecologists have found its role as a brood parasite to be of particular interest as, unlike many brood parasites, it does not directly oviposit in the hosts' nests. The P. rebeli parasitizes the colony ant species Myrmica schencki as a larva by using chemical mimicry to trick the ants into believing that they are ant larvae; thus, the ants bring the P. rebeli larvae back to their own nests and feed them. It also parasitizes the food plant Gentiana cruciata early in its life cycle, but in turn, is parasitized by the Ichneumon eumerus when it is in the M. schencki's nest. It was placed on the IUCN Red List in 2000 and is classified as a species 'vulnerable' to extinction. Although a separate species from the P. alcon, its DNA genome and appearance are extremely similar, leading many researchers to argue that any differences between the two species are due to intraspecific variation.
The Phengaris genus is a subsection within the Maculinea genus (explaining why the P. rebeli was formerly known as the M. rebeli) and the Maculinea-Phengaris clade is thought to be a section within Glaucopsyche. There are three groups within this Maculinea-Phengaris clade: the alcon group, the teleius group, and the Arion-Phengaris group.
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