| Great Windmill | |
|---|---|
| Male above and female below | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Papilionidae |
| Genus: | Atrophaneura |
| Species: | A. dasarada |
| Binomial name | |
| Atrophaneura dasarada (Moore, 1857) |
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| Subspecies | |
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3; see text |
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| Synonyms | |
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Great Windmill (Atrophaneura dasarada) is a butterfly found in India that belongs to the Windmills group of the genus Atrophaneura, comprising tailed black swallowtail butterflies with white spots and red submarginal crescents.
Contents |
Northern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, south-eastern China (including Hainan island (Guangdong province)).
The Great Windmill is not rare or threatened.
Five subspecies. The following occur in the Indian neighbourhood :-
The butterfly is considered to be beautiful in appearance.
The Great Windmill is a woodland butterfly. It can often be spotted slowly and gracefully flying across clearings. It flies between 4,000 to 9,000 feet in the spring and summer. Its habits resemble those of the Common Windmill.
Not described.
The ground colour of the larva varies in shades of grey and has a pattern of black lines. It has an orange osmeterium. The larva has a large number of tubercles arranged in two lateral and two sub-dorsal rows. The third and fourth segments have an additional pair of tubercles. The tubercles all have red tips, except those on the seventh and eighth segments which are almost entirely dirty white and the eleventh segment which has the same colour on just the tips of the tubercles.
Pupa is yellow-green in colour with blue bands. It has an orange protuberance on its back. It is attached to its support by a black body and anal pad. The pupa emits a squeak when touched.