Protographium agesilaus

Protographium agesilaus
Mounted specimen from Colombia
P. a. agesilaus underside
Cristalino River, Southern Amazon, Brazil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Genus: Protographium
Species: P. agesilaus
Binomial name
Protographium agesilaus
(Guérin-Méneville & Percheron, 1835)
Synonyms
  • Papilio agesilaus Guérin-Méneville & Percheron, 1835
  • Papilio conon Gray, [1853]
  • Papilio conon Hewitson, 1854
  • Papilio agesilaus agesilaus septemlineatus Eimer, 1889
  • Papilio arnapes Ehrmann, 1919
  • Papilio agesilaus ab. fermata (Bryk, 1930)
  • Papilio neosilaus Hopffer, 1866
  • Papilio autosilaus var. multesilaus Ehrmann, 1919
  • Papilio glaucolaus sztolcmani Prüffer, 1922
  • Neographium agesilaus tenebricosus Möhn, 2002

Protographium agesilaus, the short-lined kite swallowtail, is a medium-sized butterfly of the family Papilionidae.

Description

Protographium agesilaus has a wingspan of about 70–80 millimetres (2.8–3.1 in). The forewings are triangular shaped and the hindwings are adorned with a long sword-like tails. The basic colour of the wings is greenish white. The forewings have seven black bands and a black marking with two red spots bordered with white on the margins. On the undersides of the hindwings there are two black and red streaks. The females are like the males but have rather larger pale submarginal spots on the hindwings. They are easy to recognise by the red line of the hindwing being edged with black distally.

Biology

Larvae feed on Rollinia emarginata.

Distribution

This species is mainly present in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.

Subspecies

Status

Common and not threatened.

Etymology

It is named in the classical tradition. Agesilaus was an ancient Greek king.

References

Further reading

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This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.