''Papilio hellanichus'' 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 ...
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 ...
from the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
''
Papilio'' that is found in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
and
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...
.
The yellow spots on the upper surface of the wings are large. The insect reminds one superficially of ''
P. machaon'', with which, however, it is not closely allied. The markings of the under surface as well as the structure prove that ''P. hellanichus'' is the southern representative of ''
P. scamander''. The cell has also on the upper surface a yellow spot, which on the forewing is sometimes very small, on the hindwing always large. The spots of the discal band have almost all reddish tips. Female quite similar to the male.
[Lewis, H. L., 1974 ''Butterflies of the World'' Page 25, figure 4]
References
External links
ButterflycornerImages from
Naturhistorisches Museum Wien
The Natural History Museum Vienna (german: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) is a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most important natural history museums worldwide.
The NHM Vienna is one of the largest museum ...
hellanichus
Butterflies described in 1868
Papilionidae of South America
Taxa named by William Chapman Hewitson
{{Papilionidae-stub