Cleptes afer medina Buysson, 1891 - Spain

[Jose Ignacio]

Hello,
this one was next to the last on the same plant. I suppose it might be a female of the same species.
El Pardo, Madrid, Spain. 29/5/2011.

Thanks.

[Euchroeus]

Yes,

it is. The female has been described as
Cleptes afer var. medina by du Buysson, 1891.
Also this name is missing in Móczár, 1997.

Did you collected it? I'm quite curious to see if it is matching with the Northern African afer. In Linsenmaier's collection I found a lot of specimens collected near Madrid, but ony 2 have this strange thoracic colour. Maybe there are valid morphological character to separate it from afer.

Thanks
Paolo

[Jose Ignacio]

Thank you very much again !

Sorry, I did not collect it. My interest in these beautiful insects comes through photography and, really, up to now I haven't caught any, although I know it's very important in many times.

Best regards
Jose Ignacio