''Apatura laverna'' is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

found in the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...

that belongs to the

emperors The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/ grand empress dowager), or a woman who rule ...

group within the brushfooted family. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to China.

Subspecies

*''A. l. laverna'' Sichuan, Shaanxi *''A. l. yunlingensis'' Yoshino, 1999 N.Yunnan

Description from Seitz

A. laverna Leech (51a) recalls '' A. ilia'' here in the shape of the wings, but the distal margin of the fore-wing is more distinctly angulate below the apex and more deeply incurved below this angle. Ground-colour deep ochreous-brown, the markings blackish and similar to those of the subspecies of ''A. ilia'' mentioned above, but the rounded spots in the distal area of the hindwing are absent, there being here a narrow blackish band at the outer side of which stands a row of whitish spots. Female not known. — West China : Pu-tsu-fong, Wa-ssukow, Omei-shan, in June and July, at altitudes of from 1200 to 3000 m.Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, ''Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter'', 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren)

References

Apaturinae Butterflies described in 1893 Butterflies of Asia Taxa named by John Henry Leech {{Apaturinae-stub