Papilio dardanus

Papilio dardanus, the African swallowtail, mocker swallowtail or flying handkerchief, is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae (the swallowtails). The species is broadly distributed throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. The British entomologist E. B. Poulton described it as "the most interesting butterfly in the world". Molecular studies have provided evidence that this species' closest relative is Papilio phorcas, with Papilio constantinus being the next closest (see images below). It is a member of the Papilio genus of which Papilio appalachiensis and Papilio xuthus are also members. Papilio dardanus is the nominal member of the dardanus species group. The members of the clade are: Papilio dardanus Brown, 1776 Papilio constantinus Ward, 1871 Papilio delalandei Godart, [1824] Papilio phorcas Cramer, [1775] Papilio rex Oberthür, 1886 Listed alphabetically: P. d. antinorii Oberthür, 1883 (highlands of Ethiopia) P. d. byatti Poulton, 1926 (northern highlands of Somalia) P. d. cenea Stoll, [1790] (southern Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Eswatini) P. d. dardanus Brown, 1776 (Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, western Kenya, northern Zambia) P. d. figinii Storace, 1962 (highlands of Eritrea) P. d. flavicornis Carpenter, 1947 (Mt Kulal, north-western Kenya) P. d. humbloti Oberthür, 1888 (Comoro Islands) P. d. meriones C. & R. Felder, 1865 (Madagascar) P. d. meseres Carpenter, 1948 (Uganda, south-western Kenya, Tanzania: the western, southern and south-eastern shores of Lake Victoria) P. d. ochraceana Vane-Wright 1995 (Mt. Marsabit, northern Kenya) P. d. polytrophus Rothschild & Jordan, 1903 (Kenya: highlands east of the Rift Valley) P. d. sulfurea Palisot de Beauvois, 1806 (São Tomé and Príncipe, Bioko) P. d.

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Related concepts (3)

Papilio dardanus

Butterfly

Butterflies (Rhopalocera) are insects that have large, often brightly coloured wings, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the superfamilies Hedyloidea (moth-butterflies in the Americas) and Papilionoidea (all others). The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though they may have originated earlier. Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle, as like other holometabolan insects they undergo complete metamorphosis.

Mimicry

In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. Often, mimicry functions to protect a species from predators, making it an anti-predator adaptation. Mimicry evolves if a receiver (such as a predator) perceives the similarity between a mimic (the organism that has a resemblance) and a model (the organism it resembles) and as a result changes its behaviour in a way that provides a selective advantage to the mimic.