Old postcards Insects
So far the insects section holds a single card, a 1983 Soviet postcard titled Butterfly Briseis. The caption also gives the Latin name, Satyrus briseis L., the L. standing for Linnaeus, who described the species in 1764. Modern references place it in the genus Chazara within the brush-footed butterflies (Nymphalidae); in English it is known as the hermit.
The hermit is a butterfly of steppe and other dry grassy places, found in North Africa, southern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Central Asia and north-western China, at altitudes between 500 and 2,500 metres. Its wingspan is 45–60 mm, and adults fly from July to September depending on the area. The species takes its name from Briseis, the captive of Achilles in Greek myth.
Its caterpillars feed on grasses such as feather grass, fescue and meadow grass, so the butterfly on this vintage postcard is as much a steppe species as the plants it depends on.
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