Papilio charopus

Papilio charopus, the tailed green-banded swallowtail, is a species of swallowtail butterfly from the genus Papilio that is found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.^[2]

Tailed green-banded swallowtail
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Genus:	Papilio
Species:	P. charopus
Binomial name
Papilio charopus Westwood, 1843 [1]
Synonyms
Papilio charopus montuosus Joicey & Talbot, 1927

Subspecies

• Papilio charopus charopus (Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea: Bioko)
• Papilio charopus juventus Le Cerf, 1924^[3] (TL: Congo Republic [Semliki Valley]; Congo Republic (Ituri, Kivu), western Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi) [syn. = P. c. montuosus (Joicey & Talbot, 1927; Encycl. Ent. (B3) 2 (1): 2; (TL: Congo Republic [N.W. Kivu, Upper Iowa Valley, near msisisi, 5000-6000ft]), junior synonym]

Habitat

Highland forests (Congolian forests, Lower Guinean forests).

Status

Fairly common and not threatened.

Description

External images The ground colour is black. The markings are metallic blue. The blue band reaches the hind wing margin in area lb.Seitz- Apex of the forewing produced and the distal margin therefore distinctly excised at the end of veins 5 and 6; forewing beneath with four large yellowish submarginal spots in cellules 1 b—4; the blue median band of the upper surface gradually and very considerably widened posteriorly, so that the spots of cellules 2 and 8 of the hindwing are very long and cover much more than half their cellules; the submarginal spots of the hindwing beneath of the ground-colour and consequently only indicated by their silver rings. — Ashanti to the Cameroons. ^[4]

Taxonomy

Papilio charopus 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, lack tails with the exception of this species and Papilio hornimani. The clade members are:

• Papilio aristophontes Oberthür, 1897
• Papilio nireus Linnaeus, 1758
• Papilio charopus Westwood, 1843
• Papilio chitondensis de Sousa & Fernandes, 1966
• Papilio chrapkowskii Suffert, 1904
• Papilio chrapkowskoides Storace, 1952
• Papilio desmondi van Someren, 1939
• Papilio hornimani Distant, 1879
• Papilio interjectana Vane-Wright, 1995
• Papilio manlius Fabricius, 1798
• Papilio microps Storace, 1951
• Papilio sosia Rothschild & Jordan, 1903
• Papilio thuraui Karsch, 1900
• Papilio ufipa Carcasson, 1961
• Papilio wilsoni Rothschild, 1926