Papilio elephenor

{{Speciesbox

| name = Yellow-crested spangle

| status =

| image = PangeranopsisElephenorM 489 2.jpg

| image_caption = Male upperside (right) and underside (left)

| taxon = Papilio elephenor

| authority = Doubleday, 1845

}}

Papilio elephenor, the yellow-crested spangle, is a species of swallowtail butterfly found in Northeast India. Following decades without confirmed sightings, it was rediscovered in 2009 in Assam.Choudhury, Kushal (2010) Rediscovery of two rare butterflies Papilio elephenor Doubleday, 1845 and Shijimia moorei Leech, 1889 from proposed Ripu-Chirang Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2(4): 831-834.

Description

Male upperside dull black. Forewing with an irroration (sprinkling) of brilliant green scales that form cellular and internervular streaks. Hindwing: anterior half to nearly the median vein and above vein 5 irrorated with brilliant blue scales that become gradually sparse towards and cease entirely along the costal margin; posterior half irrorated with brilliant green scales; tornus with a small claret-red patch touched above with a few violet scales and also with an admarginal dusky black spot. Cilia brown alternated with white. Underside black. Forewing with very broad and prominent cellular and internervular pale streaks, the costal margin and the basal half of interspaces 1a and 1 distinctly black. Hindwing: a series of claret-red subterminal lunules, two side by side in each interspace, all more or less irrorated inwardly with violet scales; at the tornal angle these lunules form a conspicuous oblong patch that stretches a short way along the dorsum and bears a subbasal and a subapical black spot. Antennae, the thorax and abdomen narrowly along the middle black; head pinkish red; abdomen on the sides buff coloured.

Female "Agrees with the male. The anal (tornal) red mark on the hindwings above is larger, rounded, marginal, and includes a small black spot, the outer margin (termen) of the hindwing is distinctly sinuate between the median veins (veins 2, 3, 4), and at the, end of the upper median nervule (vein 4) produced into a short but obvious tooth as at the extremity of the lower discoidal vein (vein 5)." (Rothschild quoted in Bingham){{cite book |last1=Bingham |first1=C.T. |author-link=Charles Thomas Bingham |title=The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma |url=https://archive.org/details/butterflies02bingiala |volume=II |edition=1st |publisher= Taylor and Francis, Ltd. |location=London |year=1907 }}Karl Jordan in Seitz.Seitz, A. Band 9: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die indo-australischen Tagfalter, 1927, 1197 Seiten 177 Tafeln [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/61923 pdf] {{PD-notice}}

Taxonomy

It is a member of the species group paris

Papilio elephenor

Description

Taxonomy

See also

References

Further reading