''Papilio bianor'', the Common peacock or Chinese peacock black swallowtail emerald or Chinese peacock is a species of

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

in the family

Papilionidae Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includes the larges ...

, the swallowtails. It is native to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

. It is the state butterfly of the Indian state of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in the North India, northern part of India. It is often referred to as t ...

Description

This species is variable in size. Individuals emerged in the spring reach 4 to 8 centimeters wide, while those emerged in the summer can reach 12 centimeters. The forewings are black with dark veining and green scales. The undersides are brown, turning white distally with dark veining. The hindwings are tailed and have ridged edges containing reddish eyespots. The body is black with green scales. The male has black hair on the forewings, which the female lacks.

Subspecies

There are many subspecies. * ''P. b. okinawensis'' (Yaeyama islands, Okinawa, Japan) * ''P. b. ryukyuensis'' (Okinawa islands, Japan) * ''P. b. amamiensis'' (Amami islands, Kagoshima, Japan) * ''P. b. tokaraensis'' (Tokara islands, Kagoshima, Japan) * ''P. b. hachijonis'' (Hachijo island, Izu islands, Japan) * ''P. b. kotoensis'' Sonan, 1927 (Taiwan) * ''P. b. thrasymedes'' Fruhstorfer 1909 (Taiwan) * ''P. b. polyctor'' Boisduval, 1836 * ''P. b. ganesa'' Doubleday, 1842 (Sikkim, Assam, N.Vietnam, Yunnan) * ''P. b. gladiator'' Fruhstorfer, 1902

Biology

This species can be found in forests and other wooded areas. It can occur in suburban and urban areas if appropriate host plants are available. Food plants include species of

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. The genus ''Citrus'' is nati ...

, prickly ash, cork trees,

trifoliate orange The trifoliate orange, ''Citrus trifoliata'' or ''Poncirus trifoliata'', is a member of the family Rutaceae. Whether the trifoliate oranges should be considered to belong to their own genus, ''Poncirus'', or be included in the genus ''Citrus'' is ...

rue ''Ruta graveolens'', commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace, is a species of ''Ruta'' grown as an ornamental plant and herb. It is native to the Balkan Peninsula. It is grown throughout the world in gardens, especially for its blu ...

, and Japanese skimmia. Using the species as a model to investigate the iridescent colour evolution, phylogeography, and the evolution of swallowtail butterflies a chromosome scale genome has been sequenced, the final assembly being 421.52 Mb in size, with 15,375 protein-coding genes and 30 chromosomes (29 autosomes and 1 Z sex chromosome). Phylogenetic analysis of this data indicating that ''P. bianor'' separated from a common ancestor of swallowtails ∼23.69–36.04 million years ago.

Description

Subspecies

Biology

References

Further reading