Tomares ballus (Fabricius, 1787)

Monasterio, Yeray, Ruiz, José L., Escobés, Ruth, García, Antonio, Iglesias, Arturo, López, Mar, Pérez, Rafael, Farino, Teresa & Vergara, Enrique, 2025, The Papilionoidea (Lepidoptera) of the Autonomous City of Ceuta (Spain, North Africa): a preliminary faunistic account, Arquivos Entomolóxicos 32, pp. 241-290 : 275-276

publication ID

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16951570

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03DA1267-FFDC-E165-FF31-FA332071F86A

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Tomares ballus (Fabricius, 1787)
status

 

Tomares ballus (Fabricius, 1787) View in CoL ( Lycaenidae ) **

L5; 11/III/2020, 2 ex. v., JLR.; L5; 18/III/2021, 3 ex. v., JLR.; L5; 25/III/2021, 5 ex. v., JLR.; L5; 19/III/2023, perched on grasses, 3 ex. v., JLR.; L18; 20/III/2019, 1 ex. v., EZ.; L22; 01/IV/2021, 1 ex. v., JLR.; L23; 18/IV/2021, nect. on L. stoechas , very worn, 1 ex. v., JLR.; L28; 12/III/2020, 2 ex. v., JLR.; L69; 23/III/2019, 1 ex. v., EZ.; L132; 09/III/2020, 3 ex. v., 2 ex. coll., JLR.; L132; 10/III/2021, 1 ex. v., JLR.

Comment: Observed from 7 localities within 5 1× 1 km UTM squares, denoting its first documented occurrence in Ceuta. Adults were seen in flight during March and April, with most sightings in March, consistent with the univoltine flight period reported for Morocco (e.g., Tennent, 1996; Tarrier & Delacre, 2008). Based on current data, T. ballus appears to be scarce and localised within the study area. Adults have been observed nectaring on L. stoechas . The Ceuta population, along with those occurring in Morocco, belongs to the nominal subspecies T. ballus ballus (Fabricius, 1787) ( Tennent, 1996; Tarrier & Delacre, 2008; Leraut, 2016; Tarrier, 2025c).

Graph 1.- Observation frequency of the different species of Papilionoidea present in Ceuta. Number of records for each species over the entire study period.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Lepidoptera

Family

Lycaenidae

Genus

Tomares

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