''Lamproptera meges'', the green dragontail, is a species of

swallowtail butterfly 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 larg ...

(family Papilionidae) found in parts of

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

and

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 ...

. There are ten subspecies. A specimen from

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

is the

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. * ...

species of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Lamproptera ''Lamproptera'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Papilionidae and the tribe Leptocircini. Species References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3216862 Papilionidae Butterfly genera Taxa described in 1833 ...

Description

A small butterfly, the green dragontail has a wingspan of . It is basically black and white in colour scheme, it has a very large white-tipped tail, long. The forewing has a triangular

hyaline A hyaline substance is one with a glassy appearance. The word is derived from , and . Histopathology Hyaline cartilage is named after its glassy appearance on fresh gross pathology. On light microscopy of H&E stained slides, the extracellula ...

(glass-like) patch with black borders, and thin black stripes along the veins, forming six to eight spot/bands. It also has a pale band running obliquely across the pre-discal area. This band is continued onto the black hindwing which bears the long tail and prominent abdominal wing fold. In this species, the pale bands are light green while in its closely related species, ''

Lamproptera curius ''Lamproptera curius'', the white dragontail, is a species of swallowtail butterfly native to parts of South Asia and Southeast Asia where it is common. It belongs to the dragontails genus, ''Lamproptera'', of the swallowtail family, Papilionidae ...

'', they are white. Also in ''L. curius'', the white band has a hyaline outer edge. Sexes are alike, but the female is duller and has a ventral copulation groove before the tip of the abdomen. The males of this species do not have the sex mark (scent organ) found in ''L. curius''.

Distribution

A pair of White- Dragontail butterfly in Nameri- Photographed by Debasish Buragohain

The butterfly is found in 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 ...

, in the states of

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 ...

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

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

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

, southern

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 ...

(including

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

, peninsular and eastern

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, the

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, ...

n archipelago,

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

, and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. In Indonesia, it is found on the islands of

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

Kalimantan Kalimantan (; ) is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area, and consists of the provinces of Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and West Kalimantan. The non-Ind ...

Nias Nias (, Nias: ''Tanö Niha'') is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre, but also includes the Batu Islands to the southeast and the small ...

, Bangka and

. In 2006, it was reported from

Zhangjiajie Zhangjiajie (; Tujia language, Tujia: /tsán tɕá kǎi/) is a prefecture-level city in the northwestern part of Hunan, Hunan Province, China. It comprises the district of Yongding District, Zhangjiajie, Yongding, Wulingyuan District, Wulingyua ...

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

Province.

Subspecies

*''Lamproptera meges meges'' Sumatra, Java, Borneo *''Lamproptera meges ennius'' (C. & R. Felder, 1865) northern Sulawesi, central Sulawesi *''Lamproptera meges akirai'' Tsukada & Nishiyama, 1980 southern Sulawesi *''Lamproptera meges virescens'' (Butler,

870 __NOTOC__ Year 870 (Roman numerals, DCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 870th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 870th year of the 1st millennium, the 70th year of the 9th ce ...

Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Hainan *''Lamproptera meges annamiticus'' (Fruhstorfer, 1909) eastern Thailand, southern Vietnam *''Lamproptera meges pallidus'' (Fruhstorfer, 1909) northern Vietnam *''Lamproptera meges niasicus'' (Fruhstorfer, 1909) Nias *''Lamproptera meges decius'' (C. & R. Felder, 1862) Philippines *''Lamproptera meges pessimus'' Fruhstorfer, 1909 Philippines (Palawan, Balabac, Dumaran) *''Lamproptera meges amplifascia'' Tytler, 1939 Yunnan, Burma

Status

The green dragontail is not known to be threatened in most of its range but is considered vulnerable and in need of protection in peninsular Malaysia. In a study of swallowtail assemblages in Rani-Garbhanga Reserve Forest in Assam in 2003 and 2004, dragontails (''Lamproptera'' species) were found to have one of the lowest mean abundances; both ''L. meges'' and ''L. curius'' being found in gaps (open patches) as well as in closed forest. A 2004 report had earlier suggested that the status of the green dragontail in Garbhanga Reserve Forest was "very rare"; later a total of 108 butterflies of genus ''Lamproptera'' were seen during the 2003 and 2004 survey, the species-wise breakdown not being published.

Habits

Among the smallest of swallowtails in India, the green dragontail is usually found singly along open sunlit patches, almost always near streams and water courses. It may also be seen in small groups, usually twos or threes. It flies in an altitude range of . It flies from April to October. Having much smaller wing size to body length ratio, the butterflies have a whirring flight, rapidly beat their wings and dart back and forth in a manner reminiscent of dragonflies, their long tails acting as rudders. Male dragontails suck up a lot of water from which the dissolved minerals are filtered and the water squirted from the anus. While feeding they vibrate their wings rapidly but pause from time to time. Occasionally, they rest on leaves of bushes with wings outspread and stationary.

Life cycle

The eggs are pale green, spherical, smooth, almost transparent and resemble the eggs of other swallowtails. The caterpillar is dark green in colour and is spotted with black. The chrysalis is attached to the upper surface of a leaf by the cremaster.

Food plants

'' Illigera burmanica'' King (family

Hernandiaceae The Hernandiaceae are a family of flowering plants (angiosperms) in the order Laurales. Consisting of five genera with about 58 known species, they are distributed over the world's tropical areas, some of them widely distributed in coastal areas ...

). In the Philippines, the butterfly has also been recorded from ''

Zanthoxylum ''Zanthoxylum'' is a genus of about 250 species of deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs and climbers in the Family (biology), family Rutaceae that are native to warm temperate and Subtropics, subtropical areas worldwide. It is the type gen ...

'' species (Rutaceae).

References

External links

The Global Butterfly Information System
Images of

types 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. * Ty ...

of subspecies ''annamiticus'', ''meges''?, ''niasicus'', ''pallidus'', ''pessimus'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q280848 Papilionidae Taxa named by Johann Leopold Theodor Friedrich Zincken Butterflies of Borneo Butterflies of Java Butterflies of Indochina Butterflies described in 1831 Butterflies of Malaysia Fauna of Sumatra Insects of Brunei Lepidoptera of the Philippines