''Papilio nireus'', the green-banded swallowtail, narrow-banded blue swallowtail, or African blue-banded swallowtail, is a

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 ...

of 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 is found in

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is in males and in females. Forewing above at most with two blue submarginal spots in cellules 7 and 8; rarely in the female with several yellow ones; the blue (male) or greenish (female) median band is 2–7 mm broad at the hindmargin of the forewing and 4–12 mm in the middle of the hindwing, and is only a little widened posteriorly; the spot in cellule 2 of the hindwing does not completely cover the base of the cellule and the narrow spot in cellule lc does not reach the cell; forewing beneath almost always entirely without submarginal spots. ominateMedian band of the forewing above well developed, the spots of cellules 2—4 obliquely cut off distally; the discal spot in cellule 2 of the hindwing is very long and produced farther towards the anal angle than the spot in cellule 1 c. Sierra Leone to Angola and Uganda. — ''lyaeus'' Dbl. The median band narrower, but complete; the spot in cellule 2 of the hindwing is shorter and does not reach so far towards the anal angle as the one in 1 c. Larva above green, beneath whitish, with a whitish oblique longitudinal streak at each side on segments 7 and 8 and a girdle of ring-shaped spots on the third segment. Cape Colony to Angola and British East Africa. male ab. ''aelyus'' Suff. only differs from ''lyaeus'' in the discal spot in cellule 1 a of the forewing being entirely wanting and the one in cellule 1 b divided into two; German East Africa.— ''pseudonireus'' Fldr. (= ''donaldsoni'' Em. Sharpe). The median band is altogether absent on the forewing or is only represented by a few very small spots; on the hindwing it is formed as in ''lyaeus''. Somali¬ land and Abyssinia.

Biology

It flies year-round, with peaks from November to February. The larvae feed on '' Calodendrum capense'', '' Vepris'' species, and ''

Citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. ''Citrus'' is nativ ...

'' species.

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically: *''P. n. lyaeus'' Doubleday, 1845 – narrowly green-banded swallowtail (Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland) *''P. n. nireus'' Linnaeus, 1758 – (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, southern Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Angola, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, western Tanzania, Zambia) *''P. n. pseudonireus'' C. & R. Felder, 1865 Felder, C. and Felder, R. 865-1867''Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara'
Full text
/ref> – (northern Kenya, northern Uganda, southern Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea) Narrow-banded green swallowtail (Papilio nireus nireus).jpg, ''P. n. nireus'' dorsal side
Bobiri Forest,

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

Narrow-banded green swallowtail (Papilio nireus nireus) underside.jpg, ''P. n. nireus'' ventral side
Bobiri Forest,

Narrow blue-banded swallowtail (Papilio nireus lyaeus) in flight.jpg, ''P. n. lyaeus'' in flight, Semliki Wildlife Reserve,

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

Narrow-banded green swallowtail (Papilio nireus pseudonireus).jpg, ''P. n. pseudonireus'', Harenna Forest,

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

Narrow-banded green swallowtail (Papilio nireus pseudonireus) underside.jpg, ''P. n. pseudonireus'', Harenna Forest,

Taxonomy

''Papilio nireus'' belongs to a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

called the ''nireus''

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 ...

with 15 members. The pattern is black with green bands and spots and the butterflies, although called swallowtails, lack tails with the exception of ''Papilio charopus'' and ''Papilio hornimani''. The clade members are: *'' Papilio aristophontes'' Oberthür, 1897 *''Papilio nireus'' Linnaeus, 1758 *'' Papilio charopus'' Westwood, 1843 *'' Papilio chitondensis'' de Sousa & Fernandes, 1966 *'' Papilio chrapkowskii'' Suffert, 1904 *''

Papilio chrapkowskoides ''Papilio chrapkowskoides'', the broadly green-banded swallowtail, is a species of swallowtail butterfly from the genus ''Papilio'' that is found in the Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivo ...

'' Storace, 1952 *'' Papilio desmondi'' van Someren, 1939 *'' Papilio hornimani'' Distant, 1879 *'' Papilio interjectana'' Vane-Wright, 1995 *'' Papilio manlius'' Fabricius, 1798 *'' Papilio microps'' Storace, 1951 *'' Papilio sosia'' Rothschild & Jordan, 1903 *'' Papilio thuraui'' Karsch, 1900 *'' Papilio ufipa'' Carcasson, 1961 *'' Papilio wilsoni'' Rothschild, 1926

References

* Carcasson, R.H. (1960) "The Swallowtail Butterflies of East Africa (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae)". ''Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society'
pdf
Key to East Africa members of the species group, diagnostic and other notes and figures. (Permission to host granted by The East Africa Natural History Society) * Hancock, David Lawrence. (1984) The ''Princeps nireus'' group of swallowtails (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae): systematics, phylogeny and biogeography. ''Arnoldia Zimbabwe'' 9(12):181-215.

External links

Linnean collections
Photographs of the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q613244 nireus Butterflies described in 1758 Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus