Parnassius charltonius

Regal Apollo
Photograph of a male from the Alai mountains.
Specimen from the Ulster Museum collected by Grumm-Grzhimailo.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Genus: Parnassius
Species: P. charltonius
Binomial name
Parnassius charltonius
Gray, 1853

Regal Apollo Parnassius charltonius is a high altitude butterfly which is found in India. It is a member of the Snow Apollo genus Parnassius of the Swallowtail (Papilionidae) family. This handsome butterfly is found from 9000 to 13,000 ft from Chitral to Kumaon.

Description

For the terms used see Lepidopteran terminology

Male

Photograph of a female specimen from the Aram-Kungei, Trans-Alai region.

Upperside: creamy-white. Fore wing irrorated with black scales at base, along costal margin narrowly and below the upper half of cell at base of interspaces 2 and 3; cell with the usual medial and apical short broad transverse black bars; a short broad, similar, but obliquely placed bar beyond apex of cell from costa to vein 4, its lower portion below vein 5 narrower and bent inwards at an angle; a postdiscal transverse black bar attenuated towards the dorsum and dislocated inwards below vein 5; followed by a broad, posteriorly narrowed, subhyaline terminal edging; cilia white. Hind wing: base and dorsal margin, for four-fifths of its length, broadly and densely irrorated with black scales; a short oblique pretornal dusky-black bar, rarely centred with pink or carmine; a very large pink to deep crimson ocellus, ringed with black and centred with white, in interspaces 4 and 5, crossing vein 5, and a much smaller black spot sometimes centred minutely with pink or crimson in middle of interspace 7; beyond this a postdiscal curved series of five velvety-black spots, each touched inwardly with silvery, superposed on a broad subhyaline dusky transverse band, which is broadest in the middle and is followed by a subterminal, somewhat narrow, dusky-black band, interrupted at the veins; cilia white. Underside similar, with a glassy appearance and similar markings, seen chiefly, however, by transparency from the upperside. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen black, antenna with some few minute white specks; beneath: head and thorax anteriorly with olivaceous pubescence, thorax posteriorly and abdomen covered with long white hairs, which also clothe the dorsal margin of the hind wing.

Female

Upper and under sides similar to those in the male; differs in the black markings which are broader, the red ocelli on the hind wing that are considerably larger, and in the obliquely placed pretornal short bar that is always centred with red.[1]

250pxPhotograph of a female specimen of forma aenigma

Range

Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Eastern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, northern Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan and parts of occupied Kashmir), northern Republic of India (Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand), Autonomous Region of Tibet and other parts of China.

Status

Not known to be threatened as a species. The butterfly is considered to be common in Kashmir and is Not Rare in India. The nominate subspecies is protected by law in India.[2]

See also

Cited references

  1. ↑ Bingham, C. T. 1907. Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2
  2. ↑ Collins, N.M., Morris, M.G. (1985) Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World. IUCN. ISBN 2-88032-603-6

Other references

External links