Can anyone tell us more about the "Nabokov-lore, the numeral-like underwing pattern of this species and the reported occurrence of such an outbreak in Russia supposedly had some fateful parallel with the dates of the Russian revolution"? --Tori Alexander
Dear Tori Alexander,
Are you referring to the butterfly "outbreak" or the historical occurrence? If the latter, I have supposed it was the assassination of Alexander II on March 13, 1881 and the outbreaks of violence, especially pogroms against the Jews that make 1881 a fateful year. The vicous attacks that followed the assassination certainly can be seen as a bellwether of the later Russian revolutions
C Kunin