''Papilio chikae'', the Luzon peacock swallowtail, 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 ...

in the family

Papilionidae Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful Butterfly, 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 includ ...

. It was first described in 1965 and 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 ...

to the island of

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

in 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 ...

. It is listed as

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

by 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 ...

and

ESA The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European ...

, and is included on Appendix I of

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 ...

, thereby making commercial international trade illegal.

Description

Male Luzon peacock swallowtail have golden-green scales on the tops of their forewings and hindwings, with the hindwings having green and red patches. Their wing tails are relatively long and narrow with green patches. Female Luzon peacock swallowtails have longer tails.

Habitat and distribution

''Papilio chikae'' are found at elevations of 1500 meters and above in the northern region of the island of Luzon. They can be found around Mt. Santo Tomas but not the nearby Sierra Madre mountain range, which is presumably at too low of an altitude. They can be found from February through October. Their high altitude habitat is disrupted by meadows, shrub land, and ravines.

Taxonomy

Until recently, ''Papilio chikae'' was described as having two subspecies: ''P. c. chikae'', endemic to the island of Luzon and ''P. c. hermeli,'' endemic to the island of

Mindoro Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ), it has a population of 1,408,454, as of the 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of ...

, however new information about the genetic makeup of the subspecies lead to the reclassification of ''P. c. hermeli'' as its own species: ''P. hermeli''.

Species group

It is a member of the species group ''

paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Description

Habitat and distribution

Taxonomy

Species group

References

Other reading