WARNING - Papilio lowii in the insect market

[Adam Cotton]

I have noticed for some years now that specimens offered for sale in various dealers' websites, eBay etc etc as Papilio lowii are often in reality not actually that pure-bred taxon at all.

These specimens are bred in farms in the Philippines, and unfortunately have been 'contaminated' by cross-breeding with Papilio memnon, perhaps accidentally, perhaps deliberately. I know that some Philippine breeders have tried to make new species to con people out of cash (eg the case of Papilio luzviae).

However it is just as possible that breeders put adult Papilio lowii and Papilio memnon in the same flight cages not realising that they would interbreed, which of course they did since lowii is just a tailed subspecies of Papilio memnon. Over many years the butterfly farmers in the Philippines have been swapping livestock, or selling pupae to each other to breed themselves, and I guess that the 'hybrid' stock has spread throughout the Philippine butterfly breeding community.

I have a box of papered so called Papilio lowii that I bought from a deadstock dealer in about 2006. When I asked him about their strange appearance on receipt he admitted to me that they were hybrids, so I never spread any of them. This means that he at least knew that they were not real Papilio lowii, and had no qualms about selling them as such.

As an example, here are photos of some hybrids I found for sale on the internet today as Papilio lowii:








I made a photo of examples of my real Papilio memnon lowii from Palawan, obtained in 1984. This subspecies only has 2 female forms, suffusus (the dark one) and zephyria (with a pale patch on the hindwing) and both are tailed. Note especially that the base of the forewing upperside of the female is black or at most has a faint red mark, not a complete red triangle as in some other subspecies, such as Papilio memnon agenor.



I am posting this information so that everyone can see the difference, and know how to tell real lowii from those hybrids generally available for sale. I am not saying that all lowii on the market are hybrids, but at least people will be able to tell the real ones from the hybrids.

Of course it is best to obtain specimens that actually come from Palawan, rather than bred specimens which Philippine dealers bought from Marinduque, Mindoro etc farms.

Adam.

[Adam Cotton]

hmmm, I can't use the [ i ] and [ / i ] in the subject line to italicise a name, only in the text.

[lordpandarus]

Well, basically if you buy one now it's hard to tell for sure if it's a "real" P.lowi

Even if it's the real one I'm sure there's differences in size and shape between individuals

[homard]

Dec 28, 2013 14:11:11 GMT -8 Adam Cotton said:

I made a photo of examples of my real Papilio memnon lowii from Palawan, obtained in 1984. This subspecies only has 2 female forms, suffusus (the dark one) and zephyria (with a pale patch on the hindwing) and both are tailed. Note especially that the base of the forewing upperside of the female is black or at most has a faint red mark, not a complete red triangle as in some other subspecies, such as Papilio memnon agenor.

Adam.

Adam,
Hmm, so it's looks like that my specimens (at least femmes) are form a hybrid stock?
Despite they were received in the second half of 80s?



Alex

[Adam Cotton]

I would say that yours are real lowii, although it is unusual to see one with a full red basal patch on the forewing. The lower one has about as much red as can usually be seen. Of course genetics will always produce a few with a full red basal patch, and if yours both came from the same parent that would make it less surprising. The real point is that yours and mine are quite different to those on offer nowadays which originate from Philippine butterfly farms. You can see the constant phenotype of your form zephyria and mine, compare that with the first 2 females in my post which are very different. You can also see that the pale patch of the hindwing does vary in size from specimen to specimen, but nothing like those hybrids.

I should add also that the 2 photos of butterflies with wings closed are obviously not pure lowii, note the females are tailless just to start with, and the males are not right either.

Here's the underside of a male lowii. There is some variation in the amount of blue and orange on the hindwings, but the pattern is pretty constant.



Adam.

[Adam Cotton]

It seems that a red basal patch on the upperside of form zephyria is not as unusual as I thought, but form suffusus only occasionally has a small amount of red if any.

Of course the problem with these hybrids is that they do have characters of lowii, but also have other characters that do not occur in the wild strain.

Adam.

[homard]

Thanks Adam for so detailed reply!!
I can issue a 'sigh of relief' Do not like to have unnatural specimens in my collection.

Alex

[crino]

Hi all

I just found this swallowtail from Marinduque (Philippines) between some asian specimens. It is labelled as "Papilio ludzvia", do you think this is one of those P. lowi hybrids?







Thanks.


Hugs

[Adam Cotton]

Yes, this looks like the females supposedly of Papilio luzviae that came out of Marinduque in the early 1990s, but these are almost certainly hybrids. It wouldn't surprise me if they have rumanzovia as one parent.

Adam.