Cacyreus marshalli (Butler, 1898)

Franeta, Filip, 2018, Checklist of the butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of Montenegro, Zootaxa 4392 (1), pp. 128-148 : 140

Cacyreus marshalli (Butler, 1898)

—This is the newest member of the Montenegrin butterfly fauna, discovered in 2016 in the coastal region of the country ( Glavendekić et al. 2016). This South African native was accidentally introduced in Europe in 1987 (first reported on Formentera island, in the Balearic Archipelago) with the import of cultivated Pelargonium species, and has since spread to many European countries (Sarto i Monteys 1992; Tarrier 1997; Trematerra et al. 1997). In the Balkan Peninsula it was first recorded in Croatia on the island of Mali Lošinj ( Kosmač & Verovnik 2009) and in Slovenia the same year ( Polak 2009). It has since spread along the Adriatic coast ( Kučinić et al. 2014), reaching Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Koren & Kulijer 2016) and Albania ( Sachanowicz et al. 2016). Therefore, the discovery of this species in Montenegro comes as no surprise. Cacyreus marshalli was observed along the coast from Baošići to Igalo on Pelargonium zonale (L.) L'Hér. ex Aiton and P. peltatum (L.) L'Hér. ( Glavendekić et al. 2016) and in front of the hotel “Avala” in Budva, also in the vicinity of Pelargonium plants (Franeta pers. obs.).