A pin almost half way along each forewing costa and either side of the abdomen as well as base of forewings would be better.

Adam.

Papilio turnus was described by Linnaeus on 17 October 1771, Mantissa Plantarum Edition 2, p. 536, and is a junior subjective synonym of Papilio glaucus Linnaeus, 1758. Honey & Scoble (2001) designated the lectotype in the collection of the Linnean Society of London. A photo of this specimen is...

I have received a series of photos kindly provided by Naturalis, Leiden which are very helpful.

Adam.

They certainly look like Papilio filaprae.

Adam.

I already checked iNat last week. The associated photo appears on several different records for the same species, so I suspect that it is not the actual specimen from Simeulue.

Adam.

Does anyone here have a male or males of Papilio polytes from Simeulue Island, NW of Sumatra?

I only have females and would really like to see photos of the male to see the phenotype.

Thanks,
Adam.

Jim, I live in Chiang Mai, and just checked with the owner that Siam Insect Zoo is open. I was worried that it had closed during covid-19 and wasn't sure if it reopened or not. While you are in Thailand, if you want to see/photograph large assemblages of wild butterflies you should go to Kaeng Krach...

It absolutely depends on the formatting requirements of the journal you will publish in.

Adam.

Papilio hipponous is a separate species from the Philippines, not directly related to P. polytes but in the fuscus -group. Another species related to P. hipponous is P. prexaspes from the Malay Peninsula, Borneo and Indochina, with a subspecies in Hainan - bowringi . This subspecies is rather hard ...

COI does not really give a reliable indication of species status, only a suggestion of probability. On the other hand a combination of various mitochondrial genes and importantly also a number of nuclear genes gives a much better indication of specificity ... but even then results can be unreliable ...

OK, next question! Subspecies. I know IUCN doesn't recognize subspecies, but we all know it has been commonly used for centuries. However, as of late, most of what I'm seeing is ssp or populations elevated to (or recognized as) full species. I can't even recall the last time I saw a new ssp describ...

Here is the text of the interesting obituary from The Telegraph, for those who cannot access it: Colin Smith, maths teacher who became an authority on the butterflies of Nepal – obituary He spent the last six decades of his life in the Asian republic, where he was known as ‘Putali Baje’, or ‘Butterf...

I have been reliably informed that the Nepal butterfly expert, Colin Smith, passed away on November 4th in Kathmandu aged 87. I remember he visited me here in Chiang Mai many years ago (1985?), and I have a signed copy of the 1989 edition of his book Butterflies of Nepal which he sent me. He also wr...

Hopefully someone here can help find these works. Adding all these details will definitely help.

Adam.

Do you know the author's name and when it was published? I am sure that would help.

Adam.

There is some discussion whether a new taxon based purely on COI sequence constitutes 'description in words' under the ICZN Code or not when naming it. Some argue that the letters are abbreviations of words, whereas others say these alone should not count as a description 'in words'. I think it is d...

The 2% difference in COI sequences is still used, but it is not recognised as a fixed point that indicates different species. In some taxa the difference between species is much lower, whereas in others it is higher. Certainly a difference over 2% does suggest that there could be two species involve...

Yes, 6 subspecies is correct. Here's the updated list for the species: Papilio krishna Moore, [1858] ssp. krishna Moore, [1858] (TL: Bootan, Darjeeling) ssp. manipuri Tytler, 1939 (TL: Kabru, Manipur) ssp. thawgawa Tytler, 1939 (TL: Hthawgaw, N. E. Burma) = nu Yoshino, 1995 (TL: Gaolingong Mts., mid...

Welcome here too. I just posted a reply to your 'Presentation' post on the Insect Collectors' Forum, having checked that forum first. Please check the links I posted there about Neuroptera classification. If you post a photo of the long legged moths that it seems go straight into 'rigor mortis' some...

1.3. Exclusions. Excluded from the provisions of the Code are names proposed 1.3.3. for hybrid specimens as such (for taxa which are of hybrid origin see Article 17.2); If I understand correctly this article basically refers to man-made hybrids, excluding them from being recognised names under the ...