Post by boghaunter1 on Nov 6, 2013 17:33:44 GMT -8
Hello Everyone,
It's been a long time since I've posted anything to these forums so I have uploaded a couple of photos of a beautiful (IMHO!)aberrant P. canadensis that I collected on my farm here in NE Sask., Canada on June 18th of this year. I had been collecting damselflies along the slippery, treacherous banks of a small creek & had noticed an abundance of the common Canadian Tiger Swallowtail also flying about. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a brief glimpse of a rapidly flying, much darker colored individual, among the regular colored yellow examples. It circled around me a few times... just out of reach... of course... & then rapidly flew up & away from me. In a desperate last bid to attract the butterfly back I waved my net (also pale yellow in color) wildly about at arms length &, lo & behold, the elusive creature doubled back & flew straight at me. I was momentarily shocked & just stood there among waist deep grass, mouth agap, knowing full well I only had one chance to net the rare beast... as it got closer I made a single desperate, albeit, lucky swing, & there it was fluttering wildly in my net! What a relief!
Upon closer examination it (a male) turned out to be a quite a beautiful & amazing aberration. I quickly headed back to my house & mounted up my new prize. In Dec. 2010 a Quebec collector had placed a for sale ad in the classifieds, here at insectnet, of a very similar specimen which he called ab. "radianthus". It was so unusual in appearance that I printed out & kept the small photo accompanying the ad. I never dreamt that 3 years later I would have my own specimen! Throughout years of collecting I have observed thousands of P. canadensis & have come across a few strange variations, but never anything like this. I searched the internet &, besides the Quebec specimen, I could only find a single additional photo of a somewhat similar specimen of a beautiful P. troilus with the distinctive,elongate, ray-like markings.
Sadly my specimen has flight wear & quite badly torn edges (but good color). I know there are members out there who are very good with Photoshop (not me, unfortunately!)... if anyone could digitally rebuild these images it would show what a stunning creature this really is. I have higher res. photos available.
John K.
It's been a long time since I've posted anything to these forums so I have uploaded a couple of photos of a beautiful (IMHO!)aberrant P. canadensis that I collected on my farm here in NE Sask., Canada on June 18th of this year. I had been collecting damselflies along the slippery, treacherous banks of a small creek & had noticed an abundance of the common Canadian Tiger Swallowtail also flying about. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a brief glimpse of a rapidly flying, much darker colored individual, among the regular colored yellow examples. It circled around me a few times... just out of reach... of course... & then rapidly flew up & away from me. In a desperate last bid to attract the butterfly back I waved my net (also pale yellow in color) wildly about at arms length &, lo & behold, the elusive creature doubled back & flew straight at me. I was momentarily shocked & just stood there among waist deep grass, mouth agap, knowing full well I only had one chance to net the rare beast... as it got closer I made a single desperate, albeit, lucky swing, & there it was fluttering wildly in my net! What a relief!
Upon closer examination it (a male) turned out to be a quite a beautiful & amazing aberration. I quickly headed back to my house & mounted up my new prize. In Dec. 2010 a Quebec collector had placed a for sale ad in the classifieds, here at insectnet, of a very similar specimen which he called ab. "radianthus". It was so unusual in appearance that I printed out & kept the small photo accompanying the ad. I never dreamt that 3 years later I would have my own specimen! Throughout years of collecting I have observed thousands of P. canadensis & have come across a few strange variations, but never anything like this. I searched the internet &, besides the Quebec specimen, I could only find a single additional photo of a somewhat similar specimen of a beautiful P. troilus with the distinctive,elongate, ray-like markings.
Sadly my specimen has flight wear & quite badly torn edges (but good color). I know there are members out there who are very good with Photoshop (not me, unfortunately!)... if anyone could digitally rebuild these images it would show what a stunning creature this really is. I have higher res. photos available.
John K.
