Papilionidae book recomendation needed

[crazyjungleman]

Hello,

could somebody recommend good works (books) on Papilionidae of Central Africa (or whole Africa), Neotropic and North America regions?

And also, on another part of this forum is a recomendation by moderator wollastoni for this French TV video about O. croesus in Bacan:

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Post by wollastoni on Apr 2, 2016 at 10:47pm

An interesting 45mn movie about a team of French entomologist exploring Bachan island to find A.R.Wallace's Ornithoptera croesus.

It is in French, subtitled in English.


See link here : www.terranoa.com/product/product.php?code=1861

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I asked there, but no reply, so I try here:

I do not understand, how is it possible to watch the video in the link?

It says: ACCESS TO THIS SCREENING ROOM IS RESTRICTED TO BROADCASTERS AND AUDIOVISUAL RIGHTS BUYERS................Am I missing something?

Did not find it anywhere else, I would really like to see it.......

Any advice?

Thank you all very much

[Adam Cotton]

"could somebody recommend good works (books) on Papilionidae of Central Africa (or whole Africa), Neotropic and North America regions?"


This is not as easy a question to answer as you may think. Of course there are the books by Bernard d'Abrera on Butterflies of the XXX Region, complete with their errors and limitations. There are also many books on butterflies of individual countries or books on groups or particular genera, and there is Tyler et al. (1994) on Papilionidae of the Americas.

In reality it is often necessary to use very old works such as various volumes of Seitz, Rothschild (1895), Rothschild & Jordan (1906) etc in combination with modern works.

However, it really depends what you want to use the books for. Do you want to identify specimens, learn more about their early stages, or find out other information?

Adam.

[teinopalpus]

I can point some basic sources :

1. Africa - as for basic Papilio list you can use for free - www.metamorphosis.org.za/articlesPDF/1041/012 Genus Papilio Linnaeus.pdf
as for more complex - Graphium I recommend SMITH,C.R.; VANE-WRIGHT, R.I. : A review of the afrotropical species of the genus Graphium

2. North America - very nice and free page is : www.butterfliesofamerica.com/ which contains also list and type specimens from neotropic area.

3. Neotropic - as for book I can confirm I mostly use book mentioned by Adam from Tyler.
- specifically for Parides ther is fantastic site /in french/ - parides.genus.free.fr/home.html
- and also there are many articles about specific part of Papilionidae f.e. etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0041378/lewis_d.pdf

.. and also very old site, but surely first one I used many years ago ... swallowtails.net/

Jan

[crazyjungleman]

Thank you both.

Wow, I did no realise, that it would be that difficult and relatively complex thing to answer :-D

I have spent many years in Asian jungles, often researching Papilionidae. So I am fairly knowledgable there, with many years experience. If somebody asks me for a book on Papilionidae, the answer is easy (though can depend on personal preferences: for Troidini my favorite is Matsuka, and the for the rest the great Butterflies of the South East Asian Islands Vol. 1 Papilionidae. Oddly, for Papuan butterflies (all) is some of the best 2 volumes in indonesian by Henk van Mastrigt, whom I knew personally.

However, I travelled (and will again) Central Africa (as well as south and east) and the Amazon.

There, though, I am in deep waters with Papilonidae (as well as US). So I basically need some works on Papilionidae, general interest (natural history, biology, distribution) to start with, so I can learn to determine my asortment of Papilios from Congo and Amazon, because I have no idea.

On the other hand, all the websites I knew already - not that ignorant - but need to start to build some knowledge in Africa and Americas too.

BTW, just before I posted the question, I have found the mentioned Swallowtail Butterflies of the Americas by Tyler - I could have just asked if it's any good, to make your life easier :-D, but you seem to have answered that already. And is obtainable for OK price.

Central Africa cover is now needed :-)

Also, Adam, I have your brilliant Racheli & Cotton 2009. Palearctic Papilionidae part 1 and 2, just went through, but what puzzles me is, why is included Iphiclides, but not machaon and alexanor as well as a few Russian Papilios - all of which are true Palearctic species. Was the aim to map the edges of Palearctic? Either way, it's brilliant work, which I appreciate very much.

Any more thoughts on African Papilionidae (books which one can buy), and the mentioned video?

Thank you very much

[mygos]

Hello Crazy Guy

On Africa I would recommend :

BERGER Lucien A. Les papillons du Zaïre
Bruxelles, Weissenbruch, 1981, 543 pp., 213 planches couleurs in-texte,

d'ABRERA Bernard Butterflies of the afrotropical region
Melbourne, Lansdowne, 1980, xx, 593 pp.,

d'ABRERA Bernard Butterflies of the afrotropical region, part I : Papilionidae, Pieridae, Acraeidae, Danaidae & Satyridae
Victoria, Hill House, 1997, 2° édition révisée, xxiii, 263 pp.,

LARSEN Torben B. Butterflies of west Africa, 2 vol.
Stenstrup, Apollo Books, 2005, 595 pp., 270 pp., 125 planches couleurs in-texte,

A+, Michel

[Adam Cotton]

crazyjungleman,

Thank you for your compliments about the two parts of the Bozano series on Palearctic Papilionidae. There are supposed to be three parts in total, the first part covers Leptocircini and Teinopalpini and includes Iphiclides as you said; and the second part deals with the species of Troidini. The third part, which has been delayed for various reasons, will be about the Palearctic species of genus Papilio.

I do think that Tyler et al. (1994) will be very helpful for Amazonian Papilionidae, although I believe Keith Brown over-splits at genus level, and some of the species are over-lumped (eg. rutulus included in glaucus etc). It really is the best overall work on the region, and is crammed with all sorts of information about Papilionidae.

There are some useful publications in the Bauer & Frankenbach series, Butterflies of the World, including a revision of Parides by Tommaso Racheli (Supplement 13, 2006) and the associated plates part on the genus by Moehn (part 26).

Adam.

[crazyjungleman]

Thank you all for very interesting and helpful recommendations.

To teinopalpus: actually, I was wrong, the first link in you recommendations I did not know, and it is great and helpful (the link does not work as it is, but if one copies the whole line it does)

To Adam: well, that is now making sense, I will be looking forward to the 3rd volume.

The Tyler book is ordered (I think that’s what I needed to start with, combined with some online info it should suffice).

Bauer & Frankenbach series, Butterflies of the World I see all over the place, but trillions of volumes put me off – if you say they are OK, I could look at some of them, those, which are of particular interest to me.
….  or, when I do all my African Papilionidae (spreading I mean), I will be just taking photos, off the boards, and sending them to Adam (:-D) for ID, becoming a pro myself in the process over time :-D

I wish I knew about the Papilio dardanus females when I was in central African forests – the lack of literature – I would have been collecting some Nymphalidae and Danaidae looking-like butterflies, so I had a chance to have a female too :-D Like this, I don’t.

To mygos: Thank you :-), I have just read the Torben‘s book Hazards of Butterfly Collecting, and he mentions the difficulties obtaining the ‘Zaire’ book himself – so I doubt it’s the one I could just buy (a quick uncle Google search confirms it..........P.S. half an hour later......actually it is available, expensive and in French - a bit of overkill for me).
And the others are crazy expensive, so I will need to wait (just bought Butterflies of South-East Asian Islands, so hard to get and expensive too, but this one I really needed now). But great info, I will keep on lookout for them ...
 
Thank you everybody

[cabintom]

Dec 4, 2016 1:28:13 GMT crazyjungleman said:

when I do all my African Papilionidae (spreading I mean), I will be just taking photos, off the boards, and sending them to Adam (:-D) for ID, becoming a pro myself in the process over time :-D

I'll jump ahead of an answer Adam is sure to give you at some point. nireus has pointed claspers while sosia has rounded.

For African resources there's also : The Swallowtail Butterflies of East Africa (but that's almost 50 years old now...)
I also have a great appreciation for my copy of Papillons du Gabon which has good biogeographical information on many of the species contained therein. ... but it's in French.

Congo is my particular area of focus (mostly because I live there). Where in Congo were you?

[mcheki]

My interest is African butterflies so if I can help please get in touch.

[crazyjungleman]

Thank you all, you are all very helpful.

The Tyler's Papilionidae of Americas has arrived today :-)

To cabintom: I was not (unfortunatelly yet) in Congo as such, I just use it as a general name for an easier explanation - I travelled the edges of the Congo basin - the soutwest CAR, Cameroon, on opposite site Uganda. I was going to go to Congo and Gabon, but Baaka and forest elephants research took too long and too much of resourses :-D
I will come back - if you interested to see a crazy traveller, I would be most happy to know someone in the area. Sadly, I speak no French, and never will - I tried, I just cannot make those noises :-D

Thank you also for the East African PDF, this is great, I have found it when searching for the books - it's worth nothing to add "PDF" to start with - sometimes I find amazing things.

mcheki, thank you, I will. However, I will be next few years on the road (and in the jungles), so before I come back to my spreadind, it will take a while. Although, I will be home next Oct-Nov, so I might manage some.