Archon apollinaris (Staudinger, [1892])

Introduction

The life history of A. apollinaris has been studied by De Freina (1985), Carbonell (1991) and Hesselbarth et al. (1995). De Freina (1985) and Carbonell (1991) also discuss the taxonomy of A. apollinaris in detail and provide characters from male and female genitalia and life history that differentiate it from A. apollinus.

Geographical Distribution

A. apollinaris is known from northeast Turkey (Erzincan; Type locality: Goman Otti, NE. Turkey), west and northwest Iran, and northern Iraq. For localities see Carbonell (1991), Hesselbarth et al. (1995) and Nazari (2003).

Geographical Variation

No subspecies are recognized; the taxon bostanchii De Freina and Naderi, 2003, originally described as a subspecies of A. apollinaris, has been recently given its own specific rank based on substantial differences in molecular and morphological characters with other species of Archon (Carbonell and Michel, 2007; Nazari and Sperling, 2007).

Larval Food Plant

Like A. apollinus, this species feeds on Aristolochia (Aristolochiaceae). Host species recorded so far are A. maurorum (Ackery, 1975), A. bottae (Koçak, 1982), A. olivieri and A. paecilanthea (Hesselbarth et al., 1995).

References

Ackery, P.R., 1975. A guide to the genera and species of Parnassiinae (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. Hist. Ent. 31: 71-105, plates 1-15.

Carbonell, F., 1991. Contribution à la connaissance du genre Archon Hübner 1822: Découverte de zones de sympatrie pour Archon apollinus (Herbst) et A. apollinaris Staudinger (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Linneana Belgica 13: 3-12.

Carbonell, F. and Michel, M., 2007. Une espèce jumelle méconnue du genre Archon Hübner, 1822 (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae). Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France 112 (2), 2007 : 141-150.

De Freina, J.J., 1985. Revision der Gattung Archon Hübner 1822 mit Angeben zur Biologie, Verbreitung, Morphologie und Systematik von Archon apollinus (Herbst 1798) und Archon apollinaris Staudinger [1892] 1891 (stat. nov.) (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae). Nota Lepidopterologicae 8: 97-128.

De Freina, J. J., Naderi, A.R., 2003. Beschreibung einer neuen Unterart von Archon apollinaris (Staudinger, (1892) aus dem suedwestlichen Zentral Zagros, bostanchii subspec. nov., mit ergaenzenden Angaben zur Gesamtverbreitung der Art (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae, Parnassiini). Atalanta (Marktlruthen) 34: 429-434, 474-477.

Hesselbarth, G., van Oorschot, H., Wagener, S., 1995. Die Tagfalter der Türkei. 1. 754 pp. Bocholt, Selbstverlag Sigbert Wagener.

Koçak, A.Ö., 1982. Notes on Archon apollinus (Herbst, 1798) (Papilionidae, Lepidoptera). Priamus, 2: 44-64.

Nazari, V., 2003. Butterflies of Iran. Dayereye-Sabz Publications, Tehran.

Nazari, V. and Sperling, F.A.H., 2007. Mitochondrial DNA divergence and phylogrography in western palaearctic Parnassiinae (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae): How many species are there? Insect Systematics and Evolution, 38(2): 121-138.