Papilio prexaspes

Taxobox
name = Andaman Helen

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image_width = 200px
image_caption = "P.andamanicus" underside from Seitz
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Lepidoptera
familia = Papilionidae
genus = "Papilio"
species = "P. fuscus" Goeze [1779] subspecies "andamanicus" Rothschild 1908
binomial_authority = Goeze, 1779
synonyms = "Papilio prexaspes" C. & R. Felder, 1865, subspecies "andamanicus" Rothschild, 1908The Andaman Helen "Papilio prexaspes andamanicus" is a swallowtail butterfly endemic to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is also known as the Blue Helen.

Description

:"See glossary for terms used"Closely resembles "Papilio chaon", from which it differs as follows: smaller; fore wing more produced, its termen concave. (Described as race "prexaspes", Felder in Bingham)

Male has the ground colour of the upperside of the wings a more brownish sooty-black. Hind wing with the upper discal white patch extended into interspace 4, most usually very slightly so, often represented only by a very small spot of white scaling, a white spot also above the tornal angle. Underside, fore wing: the internervular brownish-yellow streaks limited to the apical area of the wing. Hind wing: the upper discal patch extended to the dorsum in a series of three pure white not ochraceous-tinted spots, a more or less incomplete postdiscal series of lunules formed of diffuse blue scales, and the subterminal series of ochraceous lunules of a darker colour and smaller than in "chaon"; the rest as in "chaon".

The upperside of the wing in females has the ground-colour paler than in "chaon". Fore wing with an ill-defined broad pale discal band perceptibly widened and becoming whitish opposite apex of cell. Hind wing: the extension into interspace 4 of the upper discal white patch more pronounced than in the male, the small white spot above the tornal angle followed in some specimens by a blue ill-defined lunule and an ochraceous spot. Underside, fore wing: the transverse discal hand white and much more prominent than on the upperside. Hind wing: the postdiscal series of blue lunules generally complete and well-marked : the rest as in the male.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

ee also

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

External links

* http://yutaka.it-n.jp/pap/10410010.html
* http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/2382/papilionidae/bluhelen.htm