''Bhutanitis lidderdalii'', the Bhutan glory, is a species of swallowtail

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 ...

(family Papilionidae), which is found in

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

, parts of northeastern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and of

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

. 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 William Stephen Atkinson (September 1820 – 15 January 1876, Rome) was a British lepidopterist who worked for much of his life in India. William was the eldest son of Rev. Thomas D. Atkinson, of Chesterton, in Suffolk. He became interested in na ...

in 1873. Listed under

CITES CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of inte ...

Appendix II, the status of the butterfly has been recorded as rare by some authorities but as being of

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

in 2019 by the Red Book of the IUCN.

Description

The sexes of the Bhutan glory are identical in appearance, having long rounded forewings with convex

termen Termen is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Brig (district), Brig in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Valais in Switzerland. History Termen is first mentioned in 1201 as ''Terman''. Geography Termen has an ar ...

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 A simple eye or ocellus (sometimes called a pigment pit) is a form of eye or an optical arrangement which has a single lens without the sort of elaborate retina that occurs in most vertebrates. These eyes are called "simple" to distinguish the ...

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 Charles Thomas Bingham (16 April 1848 – 18 October 1908) was an Irish military officer and entomologist. Bingham was born in India of an old Irish family, and he was educated in Ireland.Kirby, W.F , 1909 Obituary correction ''Entomologists mo ...

(1907) is as follows: Wingspan: 90–110 mm.

Distribution

The butterfly was described by

in the ''

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London The ''Journal of Zoology'' is a scientific journal concerning zoology, the study of animals. It was founded in 1830 by the Zoological Society of London and is published by Wiley-Blackwell. It carries original research papers, which are targeted t ...

'' in 1873. He writes: George Talbot in ''

The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma ''The Fauna of British India'' (short title) with long titles including ''The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma'', and ''The Fauna of British India Including the Remainder of the Oriental Region'' is a series of scientific books t ...

'' (1939) provides some interesting detail: The butterfly is found in

and northeastern

(

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

and

Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...

). It is also found in northern

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

and the

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

and

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

provinces of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

.Nazari, Vazrick. (2006)
"Bhutanitis lidderdalii" Atkinson, 1873
Version 7 July 2006 (under construction). Th
Tree of Life Web Project
Accessed 8 July 2010.

Taxonomy

There are a total of four

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of ''B. lidderdalii''. These subspecies (with

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

localities) are: * ''B. lidderdalii lidderdalii'' Atkinson 1873 - (nominate)

Buxa Buxa is a village in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the ...

* ''B. lidderdalii spinosa'' Stichel, 1907 -

* ''B. lidderdalii ocellatomaculata'' Igarashi, 1979 -

Chiang Mai Chiang Mai, sometimes written as Chiengmai or Chiangmai, is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the List of municipalities in Thailand#Largest cities by urban population, second largest city in Thailan ...

, northern

* ''B. lidderdalii nobucoae'' Morita, 1997 - north Kachin,

Status

The Bhutan glory has been considered to be "rare" by Indian authors such as

William Harry Evans Brigadier William Harry Evans (born 22 July 1876 in Shillong – died 13 November 1956, Church Whitfield ) was a lepidopterist and British Army officer who served in India. He documented the butterfly fauna of India, Burma and Ceylon in a se ...

(1932),

Mark Alexander Wynter-Blyth Mark Alexander Wynter-Blyth (occasionally unhyphenated; 15 August 1906 – 16 April 1963) was an English schoolteacher and amateur naturalist who wrote one of the first field guides to the butterflies of the Indian region. He was also involved in ...

(1957) and Isaac Kehimkar (2009). The

nominate subspecies In biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. ...

is protected under law in India. However Collins and Morris (1985) in the IUCN Red Data Book on the threatened swallowtails of the world gives it a status of "insufficiently known" arguing that the Bhutan glory is widely distributed and hence unlikely to be in danger at the moment though more information is needed on this comparatively poorly known species. In 2019, it was listed as a

species in the

Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological sp ...

of the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

. International trade in ''B. lidderdalii'' is restricted under

Appendix II. Habitat loss due to excessive felling of forests may be a significant threat regionally. The Thai subspecies, found in northern Thailand around

is considered to be a relict population and hundreds of specimens were collected annually for the specimen. It is now believed to be extinct, probably due to loss of the population and damage to its habitat by forest fire. They are currently an endangered species.

Habitat

''Bhutanitis lidderdalii'' flies from in its Indian range. It generally keeps to the

ridges A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

rather than the

valleys A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over a ve ...

Habits

Flies at tree-top level, with a slow, drifting, unpredictable flight akin to that of the tree nymph (''

Idea lynceus ''Idea lynceus'', the tree-nymph (''Malaysian giant tree-nymph''), is a species of nymphalid butterfly in the Danainae subfamily. It is found in South East Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eas ...

''). The butterflies transparent greyish underside makes it difficult to distinguish in the shadows. During rain, it sits on leaves with the forewings drooped over the hindwings, concealing its bright upper colouration. The butterfly has a habit of hill-topping and visits flowers of diverse species.

Life cycle

It is known to have two

broods Broods are a musical duo from Nelson, New Zealand, composed of Georgia Josiena Nott on lead vocals, with older brother and multi-instrumentalist Caleb Allan Joseph Nott on production and backing vocals. They released the single "Bridges (Broo ...

- the first in May and June and the second from August to October. Likely to be unpalatable due to its food plant being ''

Aristolochia ''Aristolochia'' () is a large plant genus with over 500 species that is the type genus of the family Aristolochiaceae. Its members are commonly known as birthwort, pipevine or Dutchman's pipe and are widespread and occur in the most diverse clim ...

'' species.

Food plant

Larva on ''

'' species such as '' A. kaempferii'', '' A. mandshuriensis'', '' A. griffithii'', '' A. shimadai'' and '' A. debilis'' (Igarashi, 1985, 1989).''Bhutanitis lidderdalii''
o

Accessed 23 October 2010.

Cited references

External links

* *
''Bhutanitis lidderdalii'' on Tree of Life website

Host plants of ''Bhutanitis lidderdalii'' on HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
NMNH, London {{Taxonbar, from=Q1768041 lidderdalii Butterflies of Indochina Butterflies of Asia Insects of Southeast Asia Insects of Thailand Butterflies described in 1873 Taxa named by William Stephen Atkinson