Parnassius hardwickii
Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox
Parnassius hardwickii, the common blue Apollo, is a high-altitude butterfly which is found in South Asia. It is a member of the snow Apollo genus (Parnassius) of the swallowtail family (Papilionidae). This butterfly is found from the Chitral District to Sikkim and is found from Template:Convert, making it one of the most commonly encountered species of Apollo in the Indian subcontinent.[1]
Description
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Template:Lepidopteran glossary hatnote Male upperside creamy-white. Forewing: base and costal margin densely irrorated (sprinkled) with black scales; a broad short velvety black bar across middle of cell, another along the discocellulars and a third beyond apex of cell, this last with superposed spots of crimson where the bar crosses the bases of interspaces 5 and 8; a crimson-centred black spot in middle of interspace 1; an irregularly curved prominent postdiscal series of dusky-black spots, so arranged as to leave a narrow edging of the creamy-white ground colour beyond, which is traversed by the black veins; the upper four spots of the postdiscal series fused to form a broad, continuous, but short, curved band; the terminal margin broadly dusky black; the cilia white. Both the dusky-black band and the postdiscal dusky-black markings subhyaline (almost glass like). Hindwing: base and dorsal margin broadly dusky black, the inner margin of the black colouration on the latter deeply but irregularly bi-emarginate; a crimson-centred black spot near base of interspace 5, another just beyond the middle of interspace 7, followed by a very conspicuous curved postdiscal series of five dull blue ocelli ringed with black and centred with white, and a narrow diffuse dusky black terminal band; cilia as in the forewing. Underside: similar, with a glassy appearance. Forewing: with the markings of the upperside visible by transparency; the white scaling of the upperside replaced by scale-like hairs of the same colour; the only scaled markings are the medial and apical transverse black bars in cell, three small crimson spots beyond and the black-encircled crimson spot in middle of interspace 1. Hindwing: the white scaling along the basal half of the costal margin nearly as on the upperside, the rest hair-like as on the underside of the forewing; a broad basal band of four crimson or vermilion-red spots followed by a discal irregular series of five similarly-coloured spots, the lower three formed into a short obliquely transverse band above the tornal angle; all the crimson spots encircled more or less obsoletely by black rings, and the following prominently centred with white: the spot in interspaces 2 and 5 and the basal and medial spots in interspace 7.
Female similar; the dusky black irroration on the upperside of the forewing more extensive and formed into a narrow irregular band below the cell, which runs between the crimson spots beyond the cell-apex and the crimson spot in interspace 1; the crimson spots are larger, with an additional spot in interspace 6 of the forewing and a pretornal spot on the hindwing. Underside: similar to that of the male but all the red spots much larger and with white scaling in the centre. Antennae nearly black, with only a few white specks, head with brownish-yellow pubescence; rest of the thorax and abdomen covered densely with long white hairs which also clothe, more or less narrowly, the dorsal margin of the hindwing.[2]
Range
Himalayas, northern range of India (included Sikkim), Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet and other parts of China.
Status
It is not known to be threatened.[3]
See also
Cited references
Other references
- Sakai S., Inaoka S., Toshiaki A., Yamaguchi S., Watanabe Y., (2002) The Parnassiology. The Parnassius Butterflies, A Study in Evolution, Kodansha, Japan. Template:ISBN
- Weiss J.-C., (1999) Parnassiinae of the World - Part 3, Hillside Books, Canterbury, UK. Template:ISBN
Further reading
- sv:Parnassius hardwickii - Swedish Wikipedia provides further references and synonymy