Pharmacophagus antenor origins?

[Adam Cotton]

Unfortunately subsequent analyses actually haven't conclusively confirmed the relationships of P. antenor with other Troidini.

Braby et al. 2005 suggested a Gondwanaland origin for the Troidini as a whole, with Battus splitting off first from the rest of the Troidini and then Pharmacophagus splitting from the ancestor of all the other current species.

However Condamine et al. 2013 (available in open access here onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02787.x/full ) places Pharmacophagus as sister to Cressida and postulates a SE Asian origin of the pair which then spread west to Madagascar and east to Australasia, [presumably with extinction of all ancestors in the original and "stepping stone" areas]. Strangely the pair do not appear in the phylogenetic tree published in the paper.

It seems there is still quite a lot more studying needed to resolve the definitive origin of P. antenor.

Adam.

[steve]

Parnassius ...

[Adam Cotton]

Sept 29, 2016 3:15:35 GMT steve said:

Parnassius ...

Steve,

I guess you misunderstood Jan's post. He's asking about the presence of a sphragis in Parnassinae and Cressida ("these northern and southern hemisphere separated groups") but not in Pharmacophagus. Of course Parnassius belongs to Parnassiinae.



Jan,

Actually a number of Troidini DO have a sphragis, although it may be very small (eg in some Troides species), or rather large as in Euryades. Whether the sphragis in Troidini and Parnassiinae is a commonly derived character (derived from a common ancestor) or evolved independently is still unclear.

Adam.

[mcheki]

I was lucky at the AES at Kempton Park in London last Saturday to find a dealer offering a few African pupae for sale. He had half a dozen Atrophenura antenor and I bought a larger and a smaller pupa in the hope of them being a pair. This is the larger one. I will have to wait and see if they emerge and then try for a pairing.

[Adam Cotton]

Judging from the unusual shape of the abdomen, curved at 90 degrees from the cremaster you may actually be able to tell the sex of the pupae using a hand lens if you can see the ventral side of the abdomen. Here's a sketch showing the difference between male and female pupae in the first abdominal ring after the base of the pupa. This applies to all Lepidoptera, but there are individual variations in exact appearance between species. If you have a male and a female the marked area will look different, one will have an extra pore (female) and the other, male, will not.



Adam.

[mcheki]

Thanks. I was aware they differed but will have a look later.