''Papilio garamas'', commonly known as the magnificent swallowtail, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bi ...

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 larges ...

found in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Costa Rica.Papilio at Funet
/ref>

Description

A large butterfly with a wingspan of 80 to 110 millimetres. The females are dimorphic, either resembling the male or dark forms lacking the cream median and postdiscal bands contrasting with deep black ground colour.

Subspecies

*''Papilio garamas garamas'' (western Mexico) *''Papilio garamas abderus'' Hopffer, 1856 (eastern Mexico) generally seen as conspecific with ''P. garamas'' but sometimes treated as a distinct species (Collins & Morris 1985:87, Hancock 1983, Llorente-Bousquets et al. 1997). *''Papilio garamas electryon'' Bates, 1864 (Guatemala to Honduras) may be placed in ''abderus'' *''Papilio garamas syedra'' Godman & Salvin, 1878 (Panama, Costa Rica) may be placed in ''abderus'' *''Papilio garamas baroni'' Rothschild & Jordan, 1906 (Mexico) may be placed in ''abderus''

Taxonomy

''Papilio garamas'' is a member of the ''homerus''

species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

. The members of this clade are: *'' Papilio cacicus'' Lucas, 1852 *'' Papilio euterpinus'' Salvin & Godman, 1868 *''Papilio garamas'' (Geyer,

829 __NOTOC__ Year 829 ( DCCCXXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * October 2 – Emperor Michael II dies after an 8-year reign in C ...

*''

Papilio homerus ''Papilio homerus'', commonly known as the Homerus swallowtail or Jamaican swallowtail, is the largest butterfly species in the Western Hemisphere. The species is endangered and faces a potentially bleak future. Only two small populations of the ...

'' Fabricius, 1793 *'' Papilio menatius'' (Hübner,

819 __NOTOC__ Year 819 ( DCCCXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Spring – Emperor Louis I marries Judith of Bavaria in Aachen.Rogers, B ...

*'' Papilio warscewiczii'' Hopffer, 1865 ''Papilio garamas'' is in the subgenus ''Pterourus'' Scopoli, 1777 which also includes the species groups: ''troilus'' species group, ''glaucus'' species group, the ''zagreus'' species group and the ''scamander'' species group.

Status

Not uncommon and not regarded as threatened. If the ''garamas'' subspecies other than ''garamas garamas'' are subspecies of ''abderus'' then ''garamas'' is a Mexican

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found els ...

, but a taxonomic clarification is required.

Etymology

Garamas was the son of Acacallis (Greek: Ἀκακαλλίς) in

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...

References

* *Hancock, D.L. (1983). Classification of the Papilionidae (Lepidoptera): a phylogenetic approach. ''Smithersia'' 2: 1-48. *Llorente-Bousquets, J.E., Onate-Ocana, L., Luis-Martinez, A. & Vargas-Fernandez, I. 1997. Papilionidae y Pieridae de México: distribución geográfica e ilustración. Comisión Nacional para el conocimiento y uso de la biodiversidad (CONABIO), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico; 231 pp. *Lewis, H. L., 1974 ''Butterflies of the World'' Page 24, figure 20

External links

Swallowtails.net
images
Global Butterfly Information System
Images of syntypes? in

Museum für Naturkunde The Natural History Museum (german: Museum für Naturkunde) is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major muse ...

, Berlin.

gramas The Lankesa is a river in central Lithuania. It flows for and has a basin area of . It is a left tributary of the Obelis. It begins nearby Reniūnai village in Ukmergė District Municipality, then flows to the south west through Jonava Distric ...

Butterflies described in 1829 Papilionidae of South America {{Papilionidae-stub