Gloss Papilio with no data

[johnnyboy]

My wife obtained this, along with a other Asian butterflies, from an AES fair a number of years ago. Unfortunately it came without data. Forewing length 65mm. My knowledge of swallowtails is limited, is it P. polyctor ganesa? And from which region is it most likely to be from?

Many thanks


Johnny

Attachments:

[Adam Cotton]

P. polyctor is nowadays conspecific with bianor and it isn't the NW Indian subspecies polyctor. It's probably ssp. gladiator, but I'd need to see the underside to be certain that it isn't ganesa. Can you take a photo of the underside please, just prop the specimen on its hindwings and pinhead if necessary.

Adam.

[johnnyboy]

Adam,

I was hoping to get your comments,

I shall post a photo of the underside,

Thanks

Johnny

[johnnyboy]

Adam,

A pic of the underside,

the body was glued to something, hence the gunge under the body,

Thanks

Johnny

[Adam Cotton]

I merged the new thread with the underside photo into the old thread. You can add a photo in the same thread by clicking "Reply" at the top right of the "Quick Reply" window at the bottom of the thread and then the full options will appear. If you have already written a reply in the "Quick Reply" window and you then click the reply button the text wil not be lost but will appear in the reply window when it opens.


Having looked at the underside, I am sure this is ssp. gladiator, not ganesa from Nepal, Darjeeling and Sikkim. The shape of the white patch rear the tornus of the forewing is different. The specimen looks very similar to Khasi Hills (Meghalaya) or N Burma specimens, but it really isn't possible to be certain, since ssp. gladiator is a cline, with darker specimens being commoner in the east of its range (Laos and Vietnam) and mainly lighter, greener specimens in the west. However specimens like the western ones occur throughout the range of the subspecies, so it is not possible to say definitively where your specimen came from.

Adam.

[johnnyboy]

Many thanks Adam for your expert comments. It is always frustrating to have something with no indication of locality etc. Of course, there is never any certainty that data accompanying a particular specimen is accurate in any event.

My father was born in Karachi in 1910 and went to school in Nainital in the foothills of the Himalayas about 60 miles or so NE of Dehli. He always spoke fondly of the butterflies that he saw in his youth, these he referred to as "Peacock Monals" presumably because of their resemblance to the beautiful Himalayan Monal pheasant which has iridescent blue green and red coloured plumage. While in his early teens, he and a fellow pupil got into trouble for shooting dead a leopard and a large vulture (they used a Winchester rifle), because it was outside the shooting season (his friends father had to pay a large fine on his son's behalf)

My fathers uncle, Mansel, was a keen lepidopterist and amassed a very large collection of northern Indian butterflies that he eventually donated to his alma mater Manchester Grammar School.

Johnny

[LEPMAN]

Interesting story Jhonnyboy!