Thecla betulae Linnaeus, 1758 Brown hairstreak, Nierenfleck-Zipfelfalter, Thecle du bouleau, Зефир березовый
Distribution and biological peculiarities in Armenia: The species is distributed in most of the Palaearctic. Armenia is populated by nominate subspecies. Number of host plants for the species are known: Padus avium, P. asiatica, Armeniaca mandshurica, Prunus spinosa, Crataegus dsanguinea. In Armenia the species occurs in Central and North-eastern regions of the country, where inhabits forests and woodlands; most of the imago have been observed at edges, glades, and clearings, although some records from forest interior also have been made. Elevation range occupied by the species is from 800 to 1800 m a.s.l. The caterpillars in Armenia have been found at Prunus spinosa. Flight period is from late July to late September in single generation.
Population dynamics: The species is rather uncommon within a typical habitat, which partly might be result of the cryptic behavior of the species. Due to mentioned traits the regular counts cannot always determine the imago, and therefore a calculation of population trend might be biased.
Conservation measures: The species is not included in the Global Red Lists and has not been evaluated for the last edition of Red Book of Animals of Armenia (2010). It is not included in CITES due to lack of trade interest, and is not included in the Appendices of Bern Convention; however, it was included in the European Red List of Butterflies (2010) as Least Concern. Some local populations of the species are located at the areas of National Parks of Armenia. Due to insufficient knowledge on population trend and current or potential threats for the species, the first step that we envision is development of single species transects based on egg-count in the autumn or early spring period. Once the data is collected it might be possible to make decision about its conservation status.