Troides darsius

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Sri Lankan Birdwing

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Genus:	Troides
Species:	T. darsius

Binomial name

Troides darsius
(Gray, 1852)

Troides darsius (Gray, 1852) is a species of birdwing butterfly found in Sri Lanka.

1 Description
2 Distribution
3 Larva
4 Pupa
5 References

[edit] Description

From Troides helena cerberus it differs as follows :

Male forewing : adnervular pale streaks not prominent on the upperside, more distinctly marked on the underside. Hind wing black, with a very broad discal slightly curved silky-yellow band or patch that extends beyond the cell from interspaces 2 to 7, and is composed of elongate outwardly emarginate yellow markings that are divided only by the black veins. In most specimens the inner margin of this band crosses the apex of the cell, but in many the cell is entirely black. Abdomen with some black markings beneath and a lateral row of black spots.

Female : Differs from cerberus female in the much greater extent of the black on the hind wing. Interspace 1 with a pale dusky-white patch in the middle; interspace 7 with an inner and an outer yellow spot; cell entirely black or nearly so, sometimes, but rarely, with the yellow extended into the apex.

Wing expanse of 165-175 mm.

[edit] Distribution

Sri Lanka

[edit] Larva

Cylindrical, dull purple-brown, with two dorsal rows and anterior and lateral rows of fleshy tubercles, those on the eighth segment and a streak from its base to lower end of seventh segment being pale pink; between the tubercles are dark brown streaks. Feeds on Aristolochia (Moore.)

[edit] Pupa

Pale purplish-ochreous, bent backwards anteriorly ; thorax conical, the top flattened and its sides angled; wing-cases dilated and flattened laterally in the middle, their outer edge acute; two middle segments of abdomen with a dorsal pair of conical prominences. (Moore.)