InsectNet forum

Our western half of the U.S hosts a plethora of
swallowtail species AND subspecies not known from
east of the Mississippi river (which essentially divides)
the contiguous U.S into east/west. Surprisingly, there
are a number of arid locality species/subspecies found
in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and southern California.

The stark conditions and remoteness where these desert
swallowtails are found challenges even the most intrepid
of collectors. Danger lurks out there and the potential of
being snake-bit, low on water, losing direction, running
across "bad" people, running out of gas, having no cell-phone
service --- are just some of the maladies which can befall you.

Hence, your a pretty hardy AND brave soul to pursue this passion
in such places. I would place such an individual right up there
with some of the great Aurelian collectors who first collected
the jungle swaths of South America and southeast Asia.

Recently, I had the extreme pleasure of examining and choosing
out some choice western papilio specimens from a private collection.
The collection represented 35 yrs. of passion and steadfast
dedication to collecting and breeding (where possible) -- desert
swallowtail species.

The specimen below is a top-notch bred example of Papilio polyxenes
rudkini which was raised from a wild collected female. It comes
from the Brian Banker collection which is the "finest" collection of
western desert papilio's that I've ever had priviledge to see. His data was
extensive (as seen in photo) AND was present on every single specimen !!

I would also add that he had some exceptional prep skills and his
holdings were a testament to this passionate collector/breeder who
was definitely on another level !

Wonderful story, specimen& data.

Sorry to disappoint, but the name for this lovely specimen is incorrect. Papilio coloro is a junior synonym of Papilio zelicaon, and the correct name for this is Papilio polyxenes rudkini.

See
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4877.3.3 (open access)
Shiraiwa, K. & N. V. Grishin 2020. Welcome back Mr. Rudkin: differentiating Papilio zelicaon and Papilio polyxenes
in Southern California (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Zootaxa, 4877 (3): 422–428.

Abstract
We studied wing pattern characters to distinguish closely related sympatric species Papilio zelicaon Lucas, 1852 and Papilio polyxenes Fabricius, 1775 in Southern California, and developed a morphometric method based on the ventral black postmedian band. Application of this method to the holotype of Papilio [Zolicaon variety] Coloro W. G. Wright, 1905, the name currently applied to the P. polyxenes populations, revealed that it is a P. zelicaon specimen. The name for western US polyxenes subspecies thus becomes Papilio polyxenes rudkini (F. & R. Chermock, 1981), reinstated status, and we place coloro as a junior subjective synonym of P. zelicaon. Furthermore, we sequenced mitochondrial DNA COI barcodes of rudkini and coloro holotypes and compared them with those of polyxenes and zelicaon specimens, confirming rudkini as polyxenes and coloro as zelicaon.

Adam.

Wow, thank you very much Adam for the correction.

In time, I will post some of the other nice things that I picked up related to western U.S. swallowtails.

Trehopr1 wrote: Sun Oct 09, 2022 6:52 pm challenges even the most intrepid
of collectors. Danger lurks out there and the potential of
being snake-bit, low on water, losing direction, running
across "bad" people, running out of gas, having no cell-phone
service --- are just some of the maladies which can befall you.

And thank god for that! Keeps the riff raff out.

Adam, thanks for the paper, I started reading and will continue. Very interesting.


It's a beautiful specimen, well worth preserving for future study.

@adam where can one find a distribution map of the various machaon/indra/polyxenes etc ssp? Or even a list?

I've always found it fascinating as new ssp and forms have been described, taxa moved around, etc. Admittedly, I only understand bits and pieces from evolving literature and don't study the complexes myself.

I have corrected the subspecies title in my
original post per Adam's expertice.

Thanks again Adam for your in depth knowledge !

Hey Chuck,

I was able to find two very generalised maps (shown below) of
swallowtail distribution zones in both the continental U.S and
Canada. These are what I've been able to find on the worldwide
web. Again, these are only general distributions.

However, I was unable to find ANY distribution maps for the "black"
swallowtail complex or anything relating to subspecies distribution.
I'm sure there is something better than these and this is where Adam
could better fill us-in....

Yet, this is a starting point.

Thanks hopr. I had that, but still appreciate the effort- and I'm sure someone else will find it useful.

The info on the various multitude of ssp isn't critical to my research; I was just wondering because over the decades a number of new ssp and forms have been introduced. Since it's not my field of study I haven't kept or memorized them, but I figured it would be an interesting read. Back in the olden days we had books, and they would group like sp/ssp together...seems like with the internet information is either very generic or piecemeal.

Chuck wrote: Mon Oct 10, 2022 12:17 pm @adam where can one find a distribution map of the various machaon/indra/polyxenes etc ssp? Or even a list?

Currently work is ongoing on this very complex group, particularly the species status of various taxa. When I can add more information I will.

Adam.

Wayne Whaley has a map of all the indra ssp. His website seems to be down. I contacted him for a copy but have yet to hear back.

eurytides wrote: Tue Oct 11, 2022 6:51 pm Wayne Whaley has a map of all the indra ssp. His website seems to be down. I contacted him for a copy but have yet to hear back.

That would be a good start I suppose. I have a handful of NA species, it briefly occurred to me that I should figure out what they are. Books from the 1990s are probably well out of date and erroneous.