InsectNet forum

Taiwan

A mythical species !

It is now called Pterourus maraho. (or Papilio maraho)
Agehana and Pterourus genera have been synonymised in 2015

Keith Wolfe posted these pictures of Agehana and Pterourus larvae on facebook, as you can see, they are very very close, despite the geographical distance.

That's quite a series.

I'm loving this new forum already, being able to add pictures really does put a whole new dimension on what we can achieve.

I am glad you like it, it has been a lot of work !

Wow, the site of all those maraho in one drawer makes my socks roll "up and down" !

Love watching them in Taiwan. They fly like slow Pterourus.

Maraho female, very nice and quite large 123mm

Wonderful !
Thanks for sharing, Radovan

Chuck wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 1:44 am Love watching them in Taiwan. They fly like slow Pterourus.

That's because they ARE Pterourus, see

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0140933

Wu L-W, Yen S-H, Lees DC, Lu C-C, Yang P-S, Hsu Y-F (2015) Phylogeny and Historical Biogeography of Asian Pterourus Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae): A Case of Intercontinental Dispersal from North America to East Asia. PLoS ONE 10(10): e0140933.

Abstract
The phylogenetic status of the well-known Asian butterflies often known as Agehana (a species group, often treated as a genus or a subgenus, within Papilio sensu lato) has long remained unresolved. Only two species are included, and one of them especially, Papilio maraho, is not only rare but near-threatened, being monophagous on its vulnerable hostplant, Sassafras randaiense (Lauraceae). Although the natural history and population conservation of “Agehana” has received much attention, the biogeographic origin of this group still remains enigmatic. To clarify these two questions, a total of 86 species representatives within Papilionidae were sampled, and four genes (concatenated length 3842 bp) were used to reconstruct their phylogenetic relationships and historical scenarios. Surprisingly, “Agehana” fell within the American Papilio subgenus Pterourus and not as previously suggested, phylogenetically close to the Asian Papilio subgenus Chilasa.We therefore formally synonymize Agehana with Pterourus. Dating and biogeographic analysis allow us to infer an intercontinental dispersal of an American ancestor of Asian Pterourus in the early Miocene, which was coincident with historical paleo-land bridge connections, resulting in the present “East Asia-America” disjunction distribution. We emphasize that species exchange between East Asia and America seems to be a quite frequent occurrence in butterflies during the Oligocene to Miocene climatic optima.

Adam.

LOL good point Adam.

I have that paper, read it a couple times, and love it. The whole MtDNA revolution is amazing.

Can you imagine having a complete series of Pterourus, not over geography, but over a million years?