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 bâÂÂ8 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. â 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 <small>Berger, 1950</small> (Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, northern Angola, Congo Republic)
- P. s. debilis <small>Storace, 1951</small> (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 <small>Oberthür, 1897</small>
- Papilio nireus <small>Linnaeus, 1758</small>
- Papilio charopus <small>Westwood, 1843</small>
- Papilio chitondensis <small>de Sousa & Fernandes, 1966</small>
- Papilio chrapkowskii <small>Suffert, 1904</small>
- Papilio chrapkowskoides <small>Storace, 1952</small>
- Papilio desmondi <small>van Someren, 1939</small>
- Papilio hornimani <small>Distant, 1879</small>
- Papilio interjectana <small>Vane-Wright, 1995</small>
- Papilio manlius <small>Fabricius, 1798</small>
- Papilio microps <small>Storace, 1951</small>
- Papilio sosia <small>Rothschild & Jordan, 1903</small>
- Papilio thuraui <small>Karsch, 1900</small>
- Papilio ufipa <small>Carcasson, 1961</small>
- Papilio wilsoni <small>Rothschild, 1926</small>
See also
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)
- Larsen, T.B. (2005). Butterflies of West Africa Apollo Books
- Storace, L. (1951-1952). Recherches sur le groupe africain de Papilio nireus L. Lambillionea 51:44-52; 54-57; 73-76.
External links