Bhutanitis lidderdalii

Bhutan glory
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Genus:	Bhutanitis
Species:	B. lidderdalii
Binomial name
Bhutanitis lidderdalii Atkinson, 1873
Synonyms
Armandia lidderdali

Armandia lidderdali

Bhutanitis lidderdalii, the Bhutan glory, is a species of swallowtail butterfly (family Papilionidae), which is found in Bhutan, parts of north eastern India and of Southeast Asia. A spectacular insect much sought after by collectors, the species epithet is after Dr R. Lidderdale, from whose collection the butterfly was first described by William Stephen Atkinson in 1873. Listed under CITES Appendix II, but not in the Red Book of the IUCN, the status of the butterfly has been recorded as rare by some authorities and "insufficiently known" in the IUCN Red Data Book on swallowtails.

The sexes of the Bhutan glory are identical in appearance, having long rounded forewings with convex termen and many-tailed hindwings. The butterfly is dull black above with slim, wavy, cream-coloured striations running vertically across the wings. Above, the hindwing has a prominent, large tornal patch with yellow-orange lunules bordering the tails, central bluish-black patches with white ocelli and a crimson post-discal band on the inner edge. Below, the base colour is greyer, the striations are pronounced and the colours subdued or paler.

The detailed description provided by Charles Thomas Bingham (1907) is as follows:

Males and females have the upperside of wings dull black. Forewing with the following ochraceous white slender markings: basal, sub-basal, medial and preapical lines from costa across cell, the first three continued in a series of more or less diffuse curves to the dorsal margin, the preapical terminates on vein 3; beyond apex of cell a somewhat broken transverse line from costa to vein 3 followed by a complete discal transverse line, a short upper postdiscal somewhat ill-defined line that terminates on vein 4 and a subterminal complete line; all the lines except those that cross the cell formed of a series of short curved lines in the interspaces. Hind wing with similar ochraceous white lines more or less in continuation of those on the forewing with the addition of a broad line along vein 1 and the median vein, these two lines do not reach much beyond the base of vein 4; a large lower discal patch, the inward half scarlet, the outer half velvety-black, followed by broad subterminal bright yellow lunules in interspaces 1 to 4; the tails edged very narrowly with ochraceous white; the black on the outer half of the discal patch has in interspaces 1 and 2 very large ill-defined superposed white spots thickly shaded with brownish grey except along their inner margins. Underside similar, all the markings broader, base of cell in hindwing crossed by a short ochraceous-white bar, and the edges of the pre-costal cell with narrow lines of the same colour. Antennae black; head, thorax and abdomen dull black; the thorax greenish grey laterally, the sides of the abdomen with cross-lines of ochreous white.

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Wikipedia