Byasa crassipes

"Black windmill" redirects here. For the 1974 British spy film, see The Black Windmill.
Black windmill
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Genus: Byasa
Species: B. crassipes
Binomial name
Byasa crassipes[1]
(Oberthür, 1879)[1]

Byasa crassipes, the black windmill, is a butterfly found in India and Southeast Asia that belongs to the windmills genus, Byasa, comprising tailed black swallowtail butterflies with white spots and red submarginal crescents.

Range

North east India (Manipur), Myanmar (southern Shan states), northern Thailand, northern Laos, northern Vietnam (Tonkin), and possibly southern China.

Status

The black windmill is very rare and is protected by law in India. More information is required on this species.

Description

The wingspan is 110–120 mm. It is a black butterfly which is unmarked except for obscure red spots on the upper hindwing. The tail is red tipped below.

Male upperside: Forewing dark fuliginous (sooty) black, with black veins, a longitudinal streak between the veins and streaks within the cell. Hindwing very narrow anteriorly and much prolonged posteriorly, exterior margin broadly scalloped, tail very broad and short; abdominal margin with a very long folded lappet, which when opened displays a lengthened greyish-white woolly androconial patch; colour dull greyish black, with two upper marginal and two sub-anal lunules, tip of the tail very obscure dusky red. Underside: forewing paler. Hindwing dull black, with the two upper and lower marginal lunules, an irregular-shaped anal lunule, and the tail tip bright crimson. Thorax and abdomen above black; front of head and thorax and abdomen beneath crimson; abdomen beneath with black segmental bands; hind tibiae very thick; antennae and legs black.[2]

Taxonomy

No separate subspecies have been described.

Habits

Recorded from Manipur between 1,000 and 2,500 ft (300 and 760 m).

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Häuser, Christoph L.; de Jong, Rienk; Lamas, Gerardo; Robbins, Robert K.; Smith, Campbell; Vane-Wright, Richard I. (28 July 2005). "Papilionidae – revised GloBIS/GART species checklist (2nd draft)". Entomological Data Information System. Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Germany. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  2. Bingham, C.T. (1907). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. II (1st ed.). London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.