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09 September 2018

Arabian Rock Brown – Wadi Grosbeak

The Arabian Rock Brown Hipparchia tewfiki is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in south-western Saudi Arabia and Yemen. And so is endemic to Arabia. Another member of this genus flies in the Sinai and north to Lebanon, another from Libya to Spain and a fourth on the Canary Islands suggesting the species lived in the Sahara and subsequently fragmented into four species. In courtship the butterflies spend more than 30 minutes with each other consisting of a lot of mutual touching and joint flights. I saw a number of butterflies in the Wadi Grosbeak area in summer.