• Source: Papilio sosia

Papilio sosia, the medium green-banded swallowtail, is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. It is found in the Afrotropical realm. The species was first described by Walter Rothschild in 1903.




Description


Forewing above in cellules 1 b—8 with distinct, small, usually double submarginal dots, but beneath without large submarginal spots; the median band formed almost as in nireus, though the spot in cellule 2 covers the base of the cellule, but is more produced anally than the spot in 1 c, which does not reach the cell. — Sierra Leone to the Congo region and Uganda. The median band is straight and regular and never less than 1 cm in cell lb of the forewing, nearly always much wider.




Biology


The larva feeds on Zanthoxylum and Citrus.




Subspecies


Subspecies include:

P. s. sosia (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, southern Nigeria, western Cameroon)
P. s. pulchra Berger, 1950 (Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, northern Angola, Congo Republic)
P. s. debilis Storace, 1951 (Uganda, northwestern Tanzania)




Taxonomy


Papilio sosia belongs to a clade called the nireus species group with 15 members. The pattern is black with green or blue bands and spots and the butterflies, although called swallowtails, they lack tails with the exception of Papilio charopus and Papilio hornimani. The clade members are:

Papilio aristophontes Oberthür, 1897
Papilio nireus Linnaeus, 1758
Papilio charopus Westwood, 1843
Papilio chitondensis de Sousa & Fernandes, 1966
Papilio chrapkowskii Suffert, 1904
Papilio chrapkowskoides Storace, 1952
Papilio desmondi van Someren, 1939
Papilio hornimani Distant, 1879
Papilio interjectana Vane-Wright, 1995
Papilio manlius Fabricius, 1798
Papilio microps Storace, 1951
Papilio sosia Rothschild & Jordan, 1903
Papilio thuraui Karsch, 1900
Papilio ufipa Carcasson, 1961
Papilio wilsoni Rothschild, 1926




See also


Congolian forests
Guinean Forests of West Africa




References






Sources


Carcasson, R.H. (1960). "The Swallowtail Butterflies of East Africa (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae)". Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society pdf Key to East Africa members of the species group, diagnostic and other notes and figures. (Permission to host granted by The East Africa Natural History Society)
Collins, N. Mark; Morris, Michael G. (1985). Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World: The IUCN Red Data Book. Gland & Cambridge: IUCN. ISBN 978-2-88032-603-6 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Larsen, T.B. (2005). Butterflies of West Africa Apollo Books ISBN 87-88757-43-9
Storace, L. (1951-1952). Recherches sur le groupe africain de Papilio nireus L. Lambillionea 51:44-52; 54-57; 73-76.




External links



Butterfly Corner Images from Naturhistorisches Museum Wien

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Papilio sosia
• Papilio
• List of butterflies of Uganda
• Papilio chrapkowskoides
• Papilio desmondi
• Papilio wilsoni
• Druryia
• List of butterflies of Cameroon
• Papilio ufipa
• Papilio aristophontes