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Battus polydamas antiquus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battus polydamas antiquus
Male
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Genus: Battus
Species:
Subspecies:
B. p. antiquus
Trinomial name
Battus polydamas antiquus
(Rothschild & Jordan, 1906)

Battus polydamas antiquus is an extinct subspecies of the Polydamas swallowtail within the butterfly family Papilionidae. It is only known by a drawing from 1770 by British entomologist Dru Drury. It was endemic to Antigua.

Taxonomy

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There are over 20 Battus polydamas subspecies. While many are considered rare, B. p. antiquus is the only subspecies currently listed as extinct. Dru Drury received his butterflies from a variety of sources during a period of history when cartography was not precise. There exists, to those who have examined his three-volume work Illustrations of Natural History, a plethora of errors in his taxonomy.[citation needed] Such errors may indicate that B. p. antiquus never existed at all, though this is disputed.

Description

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Drury's illustration depicts a male. The ground color of the forewings and hindwings is black. The upperside of the forewings consists of a row of eight green spots. The upper four spots are small. The sixth one is the biggest. The row of spots on the hindwing is narrower.

References

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  1. ^ Grice, H., Hall, P., Mega, N., Nunez-Bustos, E. & Freitas, A.V.L. 2018. Battus polydamas. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T110520503A110520514. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T110520503A110520514.en. Accessed on 27 June 2023.
  • Walter Rothschild & Karl Jordan (1906): A Revision of the American Papilios. In: Novitates Zoologicae Volume 13: p 523
  • F. Martin Brown and Bernard Heineman, Jamaica and its Butterflies (E. W. Classey, London 1972)
  • Smart, Paul (1976). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Butterfly World in Color. London, Salamander: Encyclopedie des papillons. Lausanne, Elsevier Sequoia (French language edition) ISBN 9780948427046 ISBN 0600313816 page 159 fig. 19 as B. archidamas Bsdv., underside (Chile), fig. 17 as polydamas (Mexico)