| Black Windmill | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Papilionidae |
| Genus: | Atrophaneura |
| Subgenus: | Atrophaneura |
| Species: | A. crassipes |
| Binomial name | |
| Atrophaneura crassipes Oberthür, 1879 |
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Black Windmill (Atrophaneura crassipes) is a beautiful butterfly found in India that belongs to the Windmills group of Atrophaneura, comprising tailed black swallowtail butterflies with white spots and red submarginal crescents.
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North East India (Manipur), Myanmar (southern Shan states), northern Thailand, northern Laos, northern Vietnam (Tonkin), and possibly southern China.
The Black Windmill is very rare and is protected by law in India. More information is required on this species.
Male upperside: fore wing dark fuliginous black, with black veins, a longitudinal streak between tho veins and streaks within the cell. Hind wing very narrow anteriorly and much prolonged posteriorly, exterior margin broadly scalloped, tail very broad and short; abdominal margin with a very long folded lappet, which when opened displays a lengthened greyish-white woolly andro-conial patch ; colour dull greyish black, with two upper marginal and two sub-anal lunules, tip of the tail very obscure dusky red. Underside: fore wing paler. Hind wing dull black, with the two upper and lower marginal lunules, an irregular-shaped anal lunule, and the tail tip bright crimson. Thorax and abdomen above black; front of head and thorax and abdomen beneath crimson; abdomen beneath with black segmental bands; hind tibiae very thick; antennae and legs black.[1]
No separate subspecies have been described.
Recorded from Manipur between 1,000 and 2,500 ft (300 and 760 m).