Papilio bianor stockleyi

[Trehopr1]

Here is my "green form" (male) of this marvelous species.
Apparently, there is also another color form which has the
green being replaced by blue;(thus a blue form) in males
as well. Sorry, no female to show here....

My books show it to be rather localized in the far south-
western provinces of Thailand; of which it is said to be
"locally common" in montane elevations.

I have always admired it (in general) for being one of the
"grand" gloss papilio species. However, more than any of
the other species of its (grouping) it possesses what surely
must be the "fattest" tails of them all.

*If Adam or Paul have had any luck in capturing this species
in Thailand I would love to see whatever specimens you could
show us !

[Paul K]

There are three subspecies of P.bianor in Thailand and one of them occurs also in Laos, but I yet to find one for my self.

[adamcotton]

I have never collected stockleyi myself although I have been to Umphang (a very remote town near the Burmese border in W Thailand) once. It only really flies in the mountains just east of Umphang town, and a 4 wheel drive vehicle is almost essential.

Having said that, I was lucky that I was able to obtain a couple of live females from local catchers twice and I have bred this for several generations. Previously no-one had bred this subspecies before, as it was basically only rediscovered in about 1989.

Here is a photo of live mating pairs

stockleyi mating.jpg (238.55 KiB) Viewed 447 times

and the 5th instar larva

bianor stockleyi larva L5.jpg (256.31 KiB) Viewed 447 times

Adam.

[adamcotton]

Here is my drawer of wild specimens, spring form males on left, summer form males centre right and summer form females in right column:

stockleyi drawer s.jpg (746.59 KiB) Viewed 446 times

Adam.

[Trehopr1]

Wow, that's a fantastic series Adam !
Thank you for some of the insights into the species whereabouts. It is a magnificently large species and I am quite surprised that the local catchers are still able to get undamaged examples since one would think the tails would easily be lost.

Looks like the "blue form" of the males is no easy find as your drawer only has one.

Thank you so much for for showing us such a wonderful series of this splendid subspecies.