Papilio bootes

{{Short description|Species of butterfly}}

{{Speciesbox

| name = Tailed redbreast

| image= Close wing mud pudding position of Papilio bootes Westwood, 1842 - Tailed Redbreast WLB IMG 2528.jpg

| taxon = Papilio bootes

| authority = Westwood, 1842

}}

Papilio bootes, the tailed redbreast, is a swallowtail butterfly found in Asia. Within their wide distribution about four population variants have been named as subspecies. They have been placed within the Menelaides clade by a 2015 phylogenetics study.{{Cite journal |last1=Wu |first1=Li-Wei |last2=Yen |first2=Shen-Horn |last3=Lees |first3=David C. |last4=Lu |first4=Chih-Chien |last5=Yang |first5=Ping-Shih |last6=Hsu |first6=Yu-Feng |date=2015-10-20 |editor-last=Boykin |editor-first=Laura M. |title=Phylogeny and Historical Biogeography of Asian Pterourus Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae): A Case of Intercontinental Dispersal from North America to East Asia |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=10 |issue=10 |pages=e0140933 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0140933 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=4617649 |pmid=26484776 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1040933W }}

Description

File:Papiliobootesmindonim1.jpg

Male upperside velvety black. Forewing with pale internervular streaks that do not reach the terminal margin and only obscurely extend into the cell. Hindwing with similar streaks in interspaces 5 and 6, but the ground colour of the cell and of the lower and posterior portions of the wing uniform; interspaces 3 and 4 with elongate somewhat oval white spots at base, an admarginal red spot at tornus and at apex of interspace 2, and similar white spots intermixed with a few reddish scales as follows: one at apex of interspace 3, two near apex of tail, one on each side of vein 4, and a fourth at apex of interspace 4; the cilia black, touched with white in the middle of the interspaces; over the red tornal spot is a minute red crescent mark. Underside similar; the pale adnervular streaks on the forewing are more prominent and extend well into the cell; two or three red spots at extreme base of costa. Hindwing: ground colour as on the upperside, but in interspaces 6 and 7 silky black with a slight greenish lustre: markings as on the upperside, but the base of the wing dark red crossed by the black veins, the tornal red spot with a much broader lunular mark above it, and similar lunules above the admarginal spots in interspaces 2 and 3, that in 3 sometimes confluent with the admarginal spot. Antennae, thorax posteriorly and abdomen black; head and thorax in front red; beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen red, the latter two with black markings.

File:Papilio_bootes_432.png

Female. Similar. Upperside: ground colour brownish black; forewing with the internervular pale streaks broader and more prominent, a small spot of red at base of wing; hindwing with an additional oval while spot in the interspace below the white spots in interspaces 3 and 4, and postdiscal lunular markings in interspaces 1 to 4. Of these the lunules in 1 and 2 are red, in 3 white irrorated with a few red scales, and in 4 pure white. Underside similar to that in the male, the red at base of wings more extended, the white discal spot in interspace 2 very small, irrorated with red scales; the postdiscal, lunular and admarginal spots larger, with a white postdiscal lunule in interspace 4. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen similar to those of the male but the red of a paler tint.{{cite book |last1=Bingham |first1=C.T. |authorlink=Charles Thomas Bingham |title=The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma Butterflies |volume=1 |edition=1st |publisher= Taylor and Francis, Ltd. |location=London |year=1905 }}

Subspecies

  • Papilio bootes mindoni (north-eastern Burma)
  • Papilio bootes janaka (northern Burma)
  • Papilio bootes xamnuensis (north-eastern Laos)
  • Papilio bootes ssp. (northern Vietnam)

Status

This butterfly is not common but is not regarded as threatened. It is protected by law in India.{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=N. Mark |last2=Morris |first2=Michael G. |title=Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World: The IUCN Red Data Book |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/98674#page/7/mode/1up |year=1985 |publisher=IUCN |location=Gland & Cambridge |isbn=978-2-88032-603-6 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}

See also

References