''Archon apollinus'', the false Apollo, is a species of

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 ...

belonging to the

Parnassinae The Parnassiinae or snow Apollos are a subfamily of the swallowtail butterfly family, Papilionidae. The subfamily includes about 50 medium-sized, white or yellow species. The snow Apollos are high-altitude butterflies and are distributed across ...

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

. The species is found in Central and Eastern Europe and West Asia. They are found in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, and like others of the family show considerable variation with four or five subspecies. A morphologically similar species '' Archon apollinaris'' has been recently separated and has been found to be

sympatric In biology, two closely related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter each other. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct spe ...

and reproductively isolated.

Description in Seitz

apollinus. D- apollinus HIM. (= pythius Esp., thia Hubn) (10 c) is on the forewing rather densely pencilled transversely on a grey ground, the male being occasionally marked with a little red; hindwing chalky-white in fresh specimens, yellowish in worn ones, the dark border bearing reddish spots centred with blue. female darker, stouter, pencilled also on the hindwing, here and there irrorated with red. Western and south- western districts of Asia Minor, transitional forms also in Syria and Mesopotamia. Among the ordinary form there occurs, especially in southern districts (Aintab), the female-ab. ''rubra'' Stgr: (10 d), which has the hindwing strongly marked with red, the red colour being concentrated into spots at the base: ab. ''krystallina'' Schilde (10 b) is on the contrary distinguished by sparsely scaled transparent wings bearing few markings, such individuals occurring everywhere among the ordinary form. — An especially strongly coloured form in which the dark submarginal costal marking of the forewing is intensified, forming a spot, and in which the marginal band of the hindwing is broad, being much shaded with bhie and red, is known as ''bellargus'' Stgr.(10 c), the base of the hindwing being non-pencilled in the female and never flushed with red. Syria (Kessab) and in an almost identical form in Palestine, in the Cilician Taurus a form transitional to the first described one being found. — ''amasina'' Stgr. (10 d) is less intensely marked, being recognizable especially by the hindwing bearing a black hook-spot at the apex of the cell; Pontus (Amasia) and East Kurdistan. — In the North-East of Asia Minor, Goman Olti (Pontus, at an altitude of about 1500 m), and in Armenia a usually smaller, pale and in both sexes sparsely marked mountain-form occurs, which is moreover characterized by a reduced marginal band of the hindwing; this is apollinaris Stgr. (= pallidior Spuler) Archon apollinaris''">ow species '' Archon apollinaris''(lOd); a dwarfed form of the female which is very deeply coloured in contrast to the ordinary form of the female of this subspecies may be called female-ab. ''mardina'' (Stgr. i. I.), under which name it is already known in collections. Seitz. A. in Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, ''Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter'', 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren) Older individuals often lose their scales, especially on the forewings, and appear very transparent.

Biology

The larvae feed on species of ''

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 ...

'' including '' A. poecilantha'', '' A. parviflora'', '' A. bodamae'', '' A. hirta'', '' A. bottae'', '' A. auricularia'', '' A. rotunda'', '' A. sempervirens'', '' A. maurorum'' and '' A. billardieri''.

Gallery

Archon apollinus MHNT CUT 2013 3 7 male dos Turquie.jpg, ''A. a. apollinus'', male - Turkey, MHNT Archon apollinus MHNT CUT 2013 3 7 male ventre Turquie.jpg, ''A. a. apollinus'' male, bottom - Turkey, MHNT Archon apollinus MHNT CUT 2013 3 7 female dos Turquie.jpg, ''A. a. apollinus'' female - Turkey, MHNT Archon apollinus MHNT CUT 2013 3 7 female Ventre Turquie.jpg, ''A. a. apollinus'' female, bottom - Turkey, MHNT File:Archon apollinus bellargus - Beautiful false apollo.jpg, ''A. a. bellargus'' -

Adana Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...

, Turkey Archon apollinus turkey ulster.jpg, A ''rubra'' specimen -

Aintab Gaziantep, historically Aintab and still informally called Antep, is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Medit ...

, Turkey,

Ulster Museum The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures ...

Archon apollinus female beirut ulster.jpg, Female -

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

Archon apollinus beirut male ulster.jpg, Male - Beirut Archon apollinus amasina ulster.jpg, Race ''amasina'' -

Amasya Amasya () is a city in northern Turkey, in the Black Sea Region. It was called Amaseia or Amasia in antiquity."Amasya" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol ...

, Turkey Archon apollinus krystallina ulster.jpg, Race ''krystallina'' -

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

File:Archon apollinus apollinus (False Apollo) - larva.jpg, Larva in Jerusalem File:FalseApollo.jpg, Showing transparent wings

Pupa

Footage of false Apollo

Mating and egg depositionMales fighting and egg deposition

References

* Nazari, Vazrick and Carbonell, Frédéric. 2006. ''Archon apollinus'' (Herbst, 1789). Version 7 July 2006 (under construction)

in The Tree of Life Web Project

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1767112 Papilionidae Butterflies of Europe Butterflies described in 1789 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Herbst Butterflies of Asia