| Malabar Rose | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Papilionidae |
| Genus: | Atrophaneura |
| Subgenus: | Pachliopta |
| Species: | A. (P.) pandiyana |
| Binomial name | |
| Atrophaneura (Pachliopta) pandiyana (Moore, 1881) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Pachliopta pandiyana |
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Malabar Rose (Atrophaneura (Pachliopta) pandiyana) is a swallowtail butterfly belonging to the Pachliopta subgenus, the Roses, of the genus Atrophaneura or the Red-bodied Swallowtails. It resembles the Common Rose (Atrophaneura aristolochiae) from which it can be differentiated by the much larger white patch on its hindwings.
It is an important endemic butterfly of South India.
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This was earlier considered a race of Atrophaneura jophon found in Sri Lanka.
Description of A. jophon - Male upperside black. Fore wing with three or four broad white streaks in cell and a variable number of similar somewhat broader streaks that are bifid along their apical half in the interspaces beyond; these streaks do not reach the terminal margin and become obsolete towards the costal margin of the wing. Hind wing: the apical half of the cell and short apically truncate streaks in the interspaces beyond white; these streaks broad, divided only by the black veins, followed by a subterminal curved series of crimson lunules irrorated with black scales. Underside similar, the markings more distinct and more sharply defined, the discal white streaks and the subterminal series of crimson spots each seven in number. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen above up to the preanal segment black; the head in front and beneath, the thorax at the sides and the apical half of the abdomen crimson, the last with one or two black lateral spots.— Female similar; fore wing broader, the while and crimson markings larger and more conspicuous.[1]
Race pandiyanus, Moore.—"Though closely allied to A. jophon Gray, this species is constantly different in pattern. The white colour of the fore wings is much more extended, especially in the apical region, but also more shaded with black scales; the internervular black streaks between the median nervures (veins 4-6) are much longer, the white linear markings, in the cell reach the discocellular veinlets. On the hind wing the last discal white spot reaches mostly to the submedian nervure (vein 1), the anterior one is very large in the male, small or divided into two spots, or obliterated in the female...". (Rothschild, quoted in Bingham)
Southern India. The butterfly does not associate much with the Common Rose, which it resembles. On the western slopes of the Nilgiris and elsewhere on the Western Ghats, the Malabar Rose entirely displaces that most abundant butterfly.
Uncommon, but not considered to be threatened as a species. Locally common in the Western Ghats.
This butterfly is confined to the wet jungles of Southern India and the Western Ghats, between 1000 to 3,000 feet (910 m).
The flight of this butterfly resembles that of the Common Rose Atrophaneura aristolochiae. Early in the morning till about 10 O'clock, it keeps low and feeds from flowers, usually those of the Lantana. Later in the day it flies high and is difficult to capture.
Appears to be single-brooded. Commonest in September and October.
The larval foodplant is Thottea siliquosa (Aristolochiaceae).