''Cethosia cydippe'', the eastern red lacewing, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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 ...

from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and nearby islands. The Australian subspecies, ''C. c. chrysippe'', is known as the red lacewing butterfly.

Description

The imagines have scarlet wings with thick black edges and a diagonal white patch on the forewings. The underside is orange with similar white patches and lines of black spots, each with a white outline. The wingspan is around .

Ecology and life cycle

Pale yellow

eggs An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo begins to develop. Egg, EGG or eggs may also refer to: Biology * Egg cell, the female reproductive cell (gamete) in oogamous organisms Food * Eggs as food Places * Egg, Austria * Egg, Switzerland ...

are laid in groups of 50 on the host plant. The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

s which hatch from those eggs are

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat n ...

, feeding on

vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

s in the family

Passifloraceae The Passifloraceae are a family of flowering plants, containing about 750 species classified in around 27 genera. They include trees, shrubs, lianas, and climbing plants, and are mostly found in tropical regions. The family takes its name from t ...

, including '' Adenia heterophylla'' (lacewing vine) and '' Passiflora aurantioides'' (Queensland passion-fruit). They are black with yellow bands and long black hairs, and form congregations on the host plants. The

pupa A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages th ...

e are brown and spiky with black and gold markings, hang from a cremaster and resemble a dead leaf.

Taxonomy and distribution

It was described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in the 1767 12th edition of ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

'' as ''Papilio cydippe''. He had previously described a European species, now classified as ''

Argynnis ''Argynnis'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Nymphalidae, one of several groups known as "fritillaries". This genus has three subgenera: ''Argynnis'', ''Fabriciana'', and ''Speyeria''. The species of the subgenera ''Argynnis'' and ''Fabr ...

'', under that name in ''

Fauna Svecica ''Fauna Svecica'' ("Fauna of Sweden", ed. 1, Stockholm, 1746; ed. 2 Stockholm, 1761) was written by Swedish botanist, physician, zoologist and naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778). This was the first full account of the animals in Sweden ...

''. ''

Centuria Insectorum file:Centuria Insectorum.png, The first page of ''Centuria Insectorum'', as included in ''Amoenitates Academicæ'' ' (Latin, "one hundred insects") is a 1763 Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic work by Carl Linnaeus, and defended as a thesis by Boas Jo ...

''. Although the

Principle of Priority Priority is a principle in Taxonomy (biology), biological taxonomy by which a valid scientific name is established based on the oldest available name. It is a decisive rule in Botanical nomenclature, botanical and zoological nomenclature to recogn ...

zoological nomenclature The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its formal author, t ...

would normally require the oldest name to be used, the 1767 name has been conserved against any earlier homonyms. Linnaeus quoted a type locality of

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 ...

, but this has been interpreted as a reference to Indonesia, and the type locality is now Ambon. A number of subspecies are recognised, including ''C. c. cydippe'' (Linnaeus, 1767) and ''C. c. chrysippe'' (Fabricius, 1775). ''C. c. cydippe'' occurs in the

Aru Islands Aru or ARU may refer to: Education * Alpha Rho Upsilon, a defunct fraternity in the United States * Anglia Ruskin University, a university in England * Ardhi University, a Tanzanian public university Places * Aru Islands Regency, a group of i ...

, the

Kai Islands The Kai Islands (also Kei Islands) of Indonesia are a group of islands in the southeastern part of the Maluku Islands, located in the province of Maluku (province), Maluku. The Moluccas have been known as the Spice Islands due to regionally sp ...

and

Maluku Maluku may refer to: Places * Maluku Islands, an archipelago that is part of Indonesia ** List of the Maluku Islands * Maluku (province), a province of Indonesia comprising the central and southern parts of the archipelago * North Maluku, a provin ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, and on

, both in the Indonesian

Irian Jaya New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Austral ...

and in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. ''C. c. chrysippe'' was first described by

Johan Christian Fabricius Johann Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is co ...

in his '' Systema Entomologiae'' in 1775, as ''Papilio chrysippe'', with a type locality of

Cooktown, Queensland Cooktown is a coastal town and suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached h ...

. The subspecies 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 ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, where it is found in the northern

Gulf Country The Gulf Country or North West Queensland is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also ca ...

and north-east coastal region. All recognised subspecies listed alphabetically: * ''C. c. alkmene'' Fruhstorfer, 1902 (D'Etrecasteaux Archipelago) * ''C. c. antoni'' Kawai, 1996 (Tanimbar Island) * ''C. c. bernsteini'' C. & R. Felder, 867/small> (Bachan, Halmahera, Morotai) * ''C. c. cenchrites'' Fruhstorfer, 1909 (New Guinea) * ''C. c. chrysippe'' (Fabricius, 1775) (Cape York) * ''C. c. cleanthis'' Fruhstorfer, 1902 (Trobriand Islands) * ''C. c. cydalima'' C. & R. Felder, 867/small> (Aru, Goram) * ''C. c. cydippe'' (Linnaeus, 1767) (Serang, Ambon, Saparua) * ''C. c. cyrene'' Wallace, 1869 (Waigeu) * ''C. c. damasippe'' C. & R. Felder, 867/small> (New Guinea) * ''C. c. doxata'' Fruhstorfer, 1913 (Goodenough Island) * ''C. c. insulata'' Butler, 1873 (Kai Island) * ''C. c. imperialis'' Butler, 1876 (Cape York to Townsville) * ''C. c. iphigenia'' Fruhstorfer, 1901 (Buru) * ''C. c. lucina'' Fruhstorfer, 1905 (Jobi) * ''C. c. mysolensis'' Fruhstorfer, 1913 (Mysol Island) * ''C. c. obiana'' Fruhstorfer, 1903 (Obi) * ''C. c. sangira'' Fruhstorfer, 1906 (Sangihe?, Sangira Island) * ''C. c. salwattensis'' Fruhstorfer, 1913 (Salwtti) * ''C. c. schoutensis'' Joicey & Noakes, 1915 (Biak) * ''C. c. woodlarkiana'' Fruhstorfer, 1902 (Woodlark Island)

References

External links

''Cethosia cydippe''

Tree of Life Web Project The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is an Internet project providing information about the diversity and phylogeny of life on Earth. This collaborative peer reviewed project began in 1995, and is written by biologists from around the world. The s ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1057689 Acraeini Butterflies described in 1767 Butterflies of Australia Butterflies of Asia Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus