''Parnassius acdestis'' is a high-altitude butterfly found in

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 ...

. It is a member of the genus ''

Parnassius ''Parnassius'' is a genus of northern circumpolar and montane (alpine and Himalayan) butterflies usually known as Apollos or snow Apollos. They can vary in colour and form significantly based on their altitude. They also exhibit altitudinal mel ...

'' of the swallowtail 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 ...

. The species was first described by

Grigory Grum-Grshimailo Grigory Yefimovich Grum-Grshimailo (, 1860–1936) was a Russian zoologist best known for his expeditions to Central Asia ( Pamir, Bukhara, Tianshan, Gansu, and Kukunor), western Mongolia and Tuva, and the Russian Far East. In literature his na ...

in 1891.

Description

Note: The wing pattern in ''Parnassius species'' is inconsistent and the very many subspecies and forms make identification problematic and uncertain. Structural characters derived from the genitalia, wing venation, sphragis and foretibial epiphysis are more, but not entirely reliable. The description given here is a guide only. For an identification key see P.R. Ackery (1975). Hindwing with very narrow marginal band, the submarginal spots isolated, small; the ultracellular costal spot of forewing continued by grey scaling, forming an s-shaped band. Stichel in Seitz, 1906 (Parnassius). ''Die Groß-Schmetterlinge der Erde''. Die Groß-Schmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes. Die palaearktischen Tagfalter, Stuttgart.

Subspecies

* ''Parnassius acdestis cerevisiae'' Weiss & Michel * ''Parnassius acdestis cinerosus'' Stichel * ''Parnassius acdestis felix'' Eisner * ''Parnassius acdestis hades'' (Bryk) * ''Parnassius acdestis imperatoides'' Weiss & Michel * ''Parnassius acdestis irenaephis'' Bryk * ''Parnassius acdestis ladakensis'' Avinoff, 1916 * ''Parnassius acdestis lathonius'' Bryk * ''Parnassius acdestis limitis'' Weiss & Michel * ''Parnassius acdestis macdonardi'' Rothschild * ''Parnassius acdestis manco'' Koiwaya * ''Parnassius acdestis ohkuma'' Koiwaya * ''Parnassius acdestis peeblesi'' Bryk * ''Parnassius acdestis peshkei'' Eisner, 1933 * ''Parnassius acdestis rupshuana'' Avinoff, 1916 * ''Parnassius acdestis takedai'' Mikami & Sakakibara, 1988 * ''Parnassius acdestis vogti'' (Bang-Haas) * ''Parnassius acdestis yanae'' Huang, 1998

Range

Kirghistan, Nepal, northern India (Jammu & Kashmir, Sikkim), western China, Sinkiang and Szechwan.

Status

Very local. Rather rare. Not known to be threatened.

References

* * * * Sakai S., Inaoka S., Toshiaki A., Yamaguchi S., Watanabe Y., (2002) ''The Parnassiology. The Parnassius Butterflies, A Study in Evolution'', Kodansha, Japan. * Weiss Jean-Claude, (1999) ''Parnassiinae of the World'', Hillside Books, Canterbury, UK. ,

External links

NRM

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 ...

of ''Parnassius acdestis peeblesi'' Bryk, 1932. acdestis Fauna of Pakistan Butterflies described in 1891 Taxa named by Grigory Grum-Grshimailo Butterflies of Asia {{Papilionidae-stub