Papilio elephenor

Taxobox
name = Yellow-crested Spangle
status =


image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Lepidoptera
familia = Papilionidae
genus = "Papilio"
species = "P. elephenor"
binomial = "Papilio elephenor"
binomial_authority = Doubleday, 1845The Yellow-crested Spangle ("Papilio elephenor") is a species of swallowtail butterfly found in South Asia.

Description

Male upperside dull black. Fore wing with an irroration of brilliant green scales that form cellular and internervular streaks. Hind wing: anterior half to nearly the median vein and above vein 5 irrorated with brilliant blue scales that become gradually sparse towards and cease entirely along the costal margin; posterior half irrorated with brilliant green scales; tornus with a small claret-red patch touched above with a few violet scales and also with an admarginal dusky black spot. Cilia brown alternated with white. Underside black. Fore wing with very broad and prominent cellular and internervular pale streaks, the costal margin and the basal half of interspaces 1a and 1 distinctly black. Hind wing: a series of claret-red subterminal lunules, two side by side in each interspace, all more or less irrorated inwardly with violet scales ; at the tornal angle these lunules form a conspicuous oblong patch that stretches a short way along the dorsum and bears a subbasal and a subapical black spot. Antennae, the thorax and abdomen narrowly along the middle black; head pinkish red; abdomen on the sides buff-coloured.

Female "Agrees with the male. The anal (tornal) red mark on the hind wings above is larger, rounded, marginal, and includes a small black spot, the outer margin (termen) of the hind wing is distinctly sinuate between the median veins (veins 2, 3, 4), and at the, end of the upper median nervule (vein 4) produced into a short but obvious tooth as at the extremity of the lower discoidal vein (vein 5)." (Rothschild quoted in Bingham)Bingham, C. T. 1907. Fauna of British India. Butterflies. Volume 2]

References

Other reading

* Collins, N.M. & Morris, M.G. (1985) Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World. IUCN. ISBN 2-88032-603-6
* Evans, W.H. (1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies. (2nd Ed), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India
* Gaonkar, Harish (1996) Butterflies of the Western Ghats, India (including Sri Lanka) - A Biodiversity Assessment of a threatened mountain system. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society.
* Gay,Thomas; Kehimkar,Isaac & Punetha,J.C.(1992) Common Butterflies of India. WWF-India and Oxford University Press, Mumbai, India.
* Kunte,Krushnamegh (2005) Butterflies of Peninsular India. Universities Press.
* Wynter-Blyth, M.A. (1957) Butterflies of the Indian Region, Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, India.

ee also

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