Papilio bootes

Taxobox
name = Tailed Redbreast


regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Lepidoptera
familia = Papilionidae
genus = "Papilio"
species = "P. bootes"
binomial = "Papilio bootes"
binomial_authority = Westwood, 1842

The Tailed Redbreast ("Papilio bootes") is a beautiful swallowtail butterfly found in India.

Description

Male upperside velvety black. Fore wing with pale internervular streaks that do not reach the terminal margin and only obscurely extend into the cell. Hind wing with similar streaks in interspaces 5 and 6, but the ground-colour of the cell and of the lower and posterior portions of the wing uniform; interspaces 3 and 4 with elongate somewhat oval white spots at base, an admarginal red spot at tornus and at apex of interspace 2, and similar white spots intermixed with a few reddish scales as follows:— one at apex of interspace 3, two near apex of tail, one on each side of vein 4, and a fourth at apex of interspace 4; the cilia black, touched with white in the middle of the interspaces; over the red tornal spot is a minute red crescent mark. Underside similar; the pale adnervular streaks on the fore wing are more prominent and extend well into the cell; two or three red spots at extreme base of costa. Hind wing: ground-colour as on the upperside, but in interspaces 6 and 7 silky black with a slight greenish lustre : markings as on the upperside, but the base of the wing dark red crossed by the black veins, the tornal red spot with a much broader lunular mark above it, and similar lunules above the admarginal spots in interspaces 2 and 3, that in 3 sometimes confluent with the admarginal spot. Antennae, thorax posteriorly and abdomen black; head and thorax in front red; beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen red, the latter two with black markings. Female. Similar. Upperside: ground-colour brownish black ; fore wing with the internervular pale streaks broader and more prominent, a small spot of red at base of wing; hind wing with an additional oval while spot in the interspace below the white spots in interspaces 3 and 4, and postdiscal lunular markings in interspaces 1 to 4. Of these the lunules in 1 and 2 are red, in 3 white irrorated with a few red scales, and in 4 pure white. Underside similar to that in the male, the red at base of wings more extended, the white discal spot in interspace 2 very small, irrorated with red scales; the postdiscal, lunular and admarginal spots larger, with a white postdiscal lunule in interspace 4. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen similar to those of the male but the red of a paler tint.Bingham, C. T. (1905) Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 1]

Subspecies:

*"Papilio bootes mindoni" (NE Burma)
*"Papilio bootes janaka" (N. Burma)
*"Papilio bootes xamnuensis" (NE Laos)
*"Papilio bootes ssp." (N. Vietnam)

tatus

Not Common but not regarded as threatened. Protected by law in India. [Collins, N.M. & Morris, M.G. (1985) Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World. IUCN. ISBN 2-88032-603-6]

References

ee also

*Papilionidae
*List of butterflies of India
*List of butterflies of India (Papilionidae)