Polyommatus (ex Cyaniris, Nomiades, Lycaena) semiargus Rottemburg, 1775 [Lycaenidae]: a blue with a wingspan of 25–30 mm flying in grassy, flowery and moist places in Morocco, Europe, Asia Minor to C Asia, N China, Korea, typically in the foothills.

*Lep1 30; Lep2 269; Lep9 48

& Ac: Polyómmatus/Cyaníris/Nomiádes/Lycáena semiárgus • En: Mazarine Blue • Fr: le demi-argus • Ge: Waldbläuling • Ru: голубянка бобовая, голубянка Семиаргус • Sp: falsa limbada

Polyommatus (ex Agrodiaetus, Plebicula, Lycaena) thersites Cantener, 1834 [Lycaenidae]: a purplish dark blue with a wingspan of about 30 mm, found in many parts of S and parts of C Europe. It is called 'Chapman's Blue' in English because the British entomologist Thomas A. Chapman in 1912 rescued it from oblivion. For almost a century since Cantener had described it as a distinct species, it had been treated as a mere form of the Common Blue (»Polyommatus icarus).

In "Nabokov's Butterflies", Godunov's father is said to have discovered its caterpillar.

*StrOps 60; NabBut 208 (FB); Lep2 268; Lep4 267

&  Ac: Agrodiáetus/Plebícula/Lycáena thersítes • En: Chapman's Blue • Fr: l'azuré de l'esparcette • Ge: Burststeppen-Bläuling • Ru: голубянка Терзит, (DarII) терзит • Sp: celda limpia

Polyphemus Moth: »Antheraea polyphemus

Pontia Fabricius, 1807: a genus of »Pieridae, subfamily Pierinae (whites). The type-species is »Pontia daplidice, the Bath White.

*NabBut 586 (BE)

Pontia daplidice (Lampert 1907)

Pontia daplidice Linnaeus, 1758 [Pieridae]: a strongly migratory white with a wingspan of 35–45 mm and black marks on its white wings; their undersides are patterned predominantly a light green. Its range is N Africa and Canary Islands, SW Europe, Turkey, Middle East to Afghanistan and Kazakhstan. Sometimes it hazards way north of its habitual range. The form bellidice Hübner is the spring generation, flying in May; the name is not in use any more.

"…reaching N. to about Lat. 60° where it still breeds but is very rare: in twelve years collecting near St. Petersburg I took only one specimen, a small fresh male of the spring form, on the Oredezh R. in 1915…"

*StrOps 330; NabBut 586 (BE); Lep1 30; Lep2 268

&  Ac: Póntia daplídice/bellídice • En: Bath White • Fr: le marbré de vert • Ge: Resedafalter • Ru: белянка Даплидика • Sp: blanquiverdosa

Pontia edusa Fabricius, 1777 [Pieridae]: an E European white morphologically indistinguishable from »Pontia daplidice but "biochemically distinct" (Tolman & Lewington, 1997). Karsholt & Razowski (1996) treat it as the "semispecies" of a superspecies Pontia daplidice. See also »Edusa Gold.

Lol 29

&  Ac: Póntia edúsa • En: Eastern Bath White • Fr: le marbré de Fabricius • Ru: белянка восточная

Pontia (ex Pieris) occidentalis Reakirt, 1866 [Pieridae], referred to by Nabokov as 'Pieris' callidice occidentalis Reak.: one of the butterflies encountered by Nabokov in August, 1949, at Jackson Hole. Pontia occidentalis is a N American white similar to the Palaearctic Pontia callidice Hübner, 1799 of the Pyrenees, the Alps, Asia Minor, Tibet, the Himalayas and Mongolia. It is unclear how the two species are related and if the American one should be considered a subspecies of the Old World one; the prevailing opinion seems to be that it is a species of its own. Its range is Alaska to Manitoba and south to C California and New Mexico.

*Lep16

&  Ac: Póntia callídice • En: Peak White • Fr: le veiné-de-vert, le marbré des alpages • Ge: Alpenweißling • Sp: blanquiverdosa alpina

&  Ac: Póntia/Píeris (callídice) occidentális • Am: Western (Chequered) White

Poplar Admirable: »Limenitis populi

processionary moth: »Thaumetopoea

Proclossiana (ex Boloria) eunomia alticola Barnes & McDunnough, 1913 [Nymphalidae, Heliconiinae, Argynnini]: the Ocellate Bog Fritillary, described from Hall Valley, Colorado.

*StrOps 323

Proclossiana (ex Boloria) eunomia eunomia ESPER, 1800 [Nymphalidae, Heliconiinae, Argynnini]: a holarctic fritillary with a wingspan of 38 mm, flying in Europe, Russia, Mongolia, NE China, Sakhalin and N America. It is the type-species of the genus Proclossiana. The butterfly had originally been described under Papilio aphirape HÜBNER, 1799-1800, and aphirape has lingered on into the 20th century; it is no valid specific or subspecific name.

&  Ac: Proclossiána eunómia • En: Ocellate Bog Fritillary • Ge: Randring-Perlmutterfalter • Fr: le Nacré de la bistorte

*LtVé 97

Pronuba: »Tegeticula yuccasella

Proterebia (ex Erebia) afra Fabricius, 1787, syn afer Esper, 1783, phegea Bork­hausen, 1788 [Nymphalidae, Satyrinae, Erebiini]: the Dalmatian Ringlet, in Dalmatia, S Russia, Asia Minor, S Urals, Caucasus, Kazakhstan. "A prairie insect dancing in and out of the grass of southern Russian steppes locally in great numbers (i.e. on the Yayla plateau in the Crimea in June)".

*NabBut 593 (BE); Lep1 32

Pseudochazara euxina (Tuzov e.a. 1997)

Pseudochazara (ex Hipparchia) euxina Kusnezov, 1909 [Nymphalidae, Satyrinae, Satyrini]: In Nabokov's first entomological paper (Lep1) listing the 77 species he had collected in the Crimea between November 1917 and August 1918, there are thirteen satyrines, but Hipparchia euxina is not among them. He noted: "I was disappointed in not finding H. euxinus – a new species lately described by Kuznetzoff". Nikolai Yakovlevich »Kuznetsov's paper had appeared in Ezhegodnik zoologicheskago museya Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk (Yearbook of the Zoological Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, vol. 14, 1909, p. 140–144) under the title "A new species of Hipparchia Fabr. 1807 (Satyrus Latr. 1809) from the Crimea". Kuznetsov compared his find to the Hippolyte Grayling [»Pseudochazara hippolyte] to which it is so similar that he thought it might rate only as a subspecies of it: "On the upperside: ground colour more saturated brown without transparent markings from below; colour of the fasciae sharply contrasting and more pure orange-yellow, with straight, not lunulate margins of the fasciae of both wings …" Today Pseudochazara euxina is considered a species, not a subspecies.

The butterfly occurs on the S coast of the Crimea at elevations between 500 and 1,200 m, especially "on the southern rocky slopes of Ai-Petri" – which is excatly where Nabokov had hunted butterflies himself without encountering this one.

Perhaps to make up for his bad luck, Nabokov had Godunov Senior show his son in the spring of 1915 "among the rocks of Ai-Petri and on the grassy plateau of the Yaila …, with a smile of condescension for this European trifle, the satyrid recently described by Kuznetsov, which was flitting from stone to stone" (p. 129). The smile of condescension may be explained not so much by the fact that Godunov on his travels in C Asia was used to rarer and more spectacular insects but that he had seen this very one before in C Asia. Indeed, Kuznetsov noted that the closest allies of the Crimean form are "the specimens from Lob-Nor in Central Asia," one of Godunov's true hunting grounds.

In Speak, Memory (p. 247) – only in the revised version of 1966 – Nabokov remembers trudging along a mountain path in the Crimea "with my butterfly net, toward the upper crags where the Euxine race of the Hippolyte Grayling was expecting me". Perhaps it was expecting him, but he did not find it; what he found "at the very summit of Ai-Petri", according to Lep1, were a few specimens of Hipparchia hippolyte but not the race euxina: "Gently flutters among the rocks, often settling with closed wings on the ground."

From the notes for "The Butterflies of Europe": "The most interesting member of the meager Crimean butterfly fauna. Rocky escarpments topping the pine-clad slopes of the Yayla mountains on the southern coast are its favorite haunts. It flies for brief indolent spells frequently on the ground and on rocks..."

Professor K.A. Efetov of Simferopol thinks Nabokov did find it in the Crimea but did not recognize it, mistaking the butterfly he collected on "July 13th, at the very summit of Ai-Petri," for a Pseudochazara hippolyte: "It is completely clear that Nabokov collected Pseudochazara euxina and not Pseudochazara hippolyte. Pseudochazara euxina has been described from the mountain Ay-Petri (type-locality) and is on the wing in July. I collected this species myself on Ay-Petri many times. Pseudochazara hippolyte is very similar to Pseudochazara euxina in habitus, but absent in the Crimea" (personal communication).

Pontus Euxinus was the Latin name of the Black Sea. 'Euxina' means 'from the Black Sea region'. In Autres Rivages, the butterfly is rendered as "le Pseudochazara Hippolyte de la race turque".

*Gift 129; NabBut 589 (BE); Lep1 32

&  Ac: Pseudochazára/Hippárchia euxína • En: *Black Sea Grayling • Ge: *Schwarzmeer-Samtfalter • Ru: сатир черноморский (name coined in 1999 by Konstantin Efetov)

Pseudochazara (ex Hipparchia) hippolyte Esper, 1784 [Nymphalidae, Satyrinae, Satyrini]: a butterfly quite similar to »Hipparchia semele with a wingspan of about 48 mm and a pale gray-brown upperside with broad straw-colored bands and two small eyespots on the forewings and one on the hindwings. Its distribution is remarkable. The type specimen was taken in the eighteenth century near Orenburg in S Russia, and Nabokov believed he had taken a few specimens in the Crimea. While it is absent from the rest of Europe, an isolated colony was found in the Sierra Nevada of S Spain for which it is commonly called Nevada Grayling. It also occurs in Asia Minor and east to the Tianshan mountains of C Asia. So this butterfly seems to unexpectedly connect Nabokov's Russian past with his West European one and also with the travels to Central Asia he was dreaming about.

*SpeakM 247; Lep1 32

&  Ac: Pseudochazára/Hippárchia hippólyte • En: Hippolyte Grayling, Nevada Grayling • l'ocellé andalou • Ge: *Sierra-Nevada-Samtfalter • Sp: filabresa

Pseudochrysops Nabokov, 1945 [Lycaenidae, Polyommatinae, Polyommatini, Pseudochrysops Section]: a new genus of Neotropical »Lycaenidae introduced by Nabokov. The type-species is »Pseudochrysops bornoi. See in »Section 1.

*Lep9 12–14, 47, passim

Pseudochrysops bornoi Comstock & Huntington, 1943 [Lycaenidae]: a blue in Haiti, the type-species of the genus »Pseudochrysops Nabokov, 1945.

*Lep9 12–14

Pseudodemas tschumarae: This seems to be an altogether imaginary lepidopteron. It serves Godunov jun. to prove that the "utilitarian" theory of protective mimicry (and hence the theory of natural selection) is "illusory".

Godunov jun. reports the case of Pseudodemas tschumarae, a "quite local Siberian owlet moth" said to imitate the downy yellow flowers of the scrub Tschumara vitimensis. So far, the case would be an altogether normal one. When an insect tries to be less conspicuous to potential predators by blending into the background, biologists speak of 'crypsis'. Most caterpillars (which are otherwise defenseless) practice some kind of crypsis.

However, the present case would be a case of anachronistic crypsis, because the flowers bloom in May while the caterpillar of the moth appears only at summer's end. The camouflage actually makes it not less but more conspicuous and hence is of no use to it. "The happy impression of enchanting irrationality experienced by the observer at the sight of a disguised tschumarae – an imaginary flower, an impossible flower – that is what nature, our intelligent accomplice and witty mother wanted to achieve, and did."

There does not seem to be a plant by the name of Tschumara vitimensis (or chumara, tchumara, etc.). However, in the book he wrote on his fourth expedition into Central Asia in 1879-80 (Iz Zaisana cherez Khami v Tibet i na verkove Zheltoi reki, 1883, ch. 17), Nikolai Przhevalskii several times mentions Dzhuma, the Tangut name for the common European and Asian herb Silverweed or Cinquefoil (Potentilla anserina L.). It blooms in spring and has yellow flowers. If Nabokov invented the plant and its name, he may have been influenced by Przhevalski's book which he seems to have studied before writing The Gift, making the plant  the Dzhuma of Chumara, so to speak. Chumara is a locality some 1200 km SE of Moscow in the Republic of Bashkortostan. Tschumara vitimensis then would be the Vitim variety of the Silverweed plant first described from Chumara in the E of European Russia, while Vitim in its turn is a town on the Lena River some 500 km E of Lake Baikal. The name vitimensis has been used at least three times for local Siberian butterflies; they all are obsolete. (These butterflies are Brenthis ino paidicus Fruhstorfer, 1907, Colias tyche Böber, 1812, Pieris euorientis Verity, 1908.) So geographically, the case can more or less be pinned down.

Also there certainly is no genus of Lepidoptera by the name of Pseudodemas. No such moth exists in the collections where it would belong, in the Siberian Museum of Zoology in Novosibirsk. However, the name helps to localize Pseudodemas ('the false fat one') in the subfamily Pantheinae of the noctuids. There is, or rather was, the generic name Demas Stephens, 1828, an obsolete synonym of what today is Colocasia Ochsenheimer, 1816; the type species is Colocasia coryli Linnaeus, 1758, the Nut-tree Tussock Moth. A Pseudodemas would be an insect that looks like a Demas but is none.

I do not know whether there is a case of anachronistic crypsis like that of 'tschumarae,' and if there is, whether it is meant to be a disguise at all. The caterpillars of noctuids for the most part are small and inconspicuous. Living close to the ground among grasses and herbs, they usually are mottled brown, gray, black – earthy colors with sometimes a bit of green or yellow. But even if such a case existed, it would be a very weak one to base a refutation of Darwinism on. The yellow color might be useful to the caterpillar even out of season, in case the local birds find a tidbit that looks like a flower not too appetizing at any time of the year.

There is a butterfly whose larvae are as yellow as the flowers of the plants it feeds on. It is Phoebis sennae Linnaeus, 1758 [Pieridae], the Cloudless Giant Sulphur, a lemon-yellow butterfly (wingspan 41–70 mm) on open and brushy land, from S California and Gulf States, Mexico and C America to Patagonia. The mature larva (41–44 mm) is a mustard yellow with rows of black dots across the back. Among other plants, it lives on many kinds of senna (Cassia), hiding in day tents made of silk and leaves. They are "extremely difficult to spot on their Cassia foodplant, especially as they usually feed amongst the yellow flowers" (Preston-Mafham 1988, p. 97). There is no hint, however, that the color is out of sync with the flowers.

*NabBut 222–223 (FB)

&  Ac: Colocásia córyli • En: Nut-tree Tussock • Ge: Haseleule • Ru: узорница лещинная