Byasa mencius

Byasa mencius[1] is a butterfly from the family Papilionidae (swallowtails). It is found in China. The species was first described by Cajetan Felder and Rudolf Felder in 1862.

Byasa mencius
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Genus: Byasa
Species:
B. mencius
Binomial name
Byasa mencius
Synonyms
  • Papilio alcinous mencius Rothschild, 1895
  • Atrophaneura mencius (C. Felder & R. Felder, 1862)

The wingspan is 10–11 cm. The wings are dark brown with chain of large red spots on the hindwings. The underside of the body is covered in red hairs.[2]

The larvae feed on Cocullus carolinus.

Taxonomy

In the original description (C. Felder & R. Felder, 1862; Wien. ent. Monats. 6 (1): 22) Papilio mencius Nob. is stated to be "geographica mutatio" [synonym of] P. alcinous Klug var. apud. [George Robert] Gray, 1852 Catal. of Lep. Ins. I Plate 4 fig. 2, 3. shown here in the taxobox illustration.

In other words, the variety of Papilio alcinous figured by Gray was raised to a "good" (one accepted) species by C. Felder and R. Felder. Their specimens were from the Chinese coastal trading city of Ningpo.

References
  1. 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. Archived from the original on 9 September 2010. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  2. ButterflyCorner.net Archived 2012-03-15 at the Wayback Machine Images from Naturhistorisches Museum Wien


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