My new paper on Graphium antiphates

[Adam Cotton]

My new paper is in the latest issue of Butterflies journal, just published at the end of December.

Here's the title and abstract:


Confirmation of the true identity of Papilio alcibiades Fabricius, 1787 (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae)


Adam M. Cotton


Abstract

The syntypes of Papilio alcibiades Fabricius, 1787 have been treated as originating in South India or Java, but are shown here to represent the population of Graphium antiphates (Cramer, 1775) from the Malay Peninsula on the basis of phenotype and historical records of the travels of the collector. Relevant nomenclatorial changes are applied as a result of the findings, and an updated synonymic listing of the species is presented.

[Adam Cotton]

I summarised the nomenclatorial changes as follows:

Confirmation of the origin of the syntypes of Papilio alcibiades has implications for the nomenclature of Graphium antiphates. Firstly the South Indian subspecies must be known as naira (Moore, 1903), and the Javan subspecies is correctly named javanicus (Eimer, 1889). The subspecies from the Malay Peninsula must be known by the name alcibiades (Fabricius, 1787) since it has priority over itamputi (Butler, 1885). There is some question whether itamputi is a junior synonym of alcibiades or not, since itamputi was described from South Sumatra. Tung (1982) believed that West and South Sumatra antiphates is different to specimens from the Malay Peninsula and named a new subspecies jibasumbati from Padang, West Sumatra, assuming that itamputi had originally been described from West Malaysia. Tung's name is a junior synonym of itamputi but further analysis is needed before deciding whether the populations from Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, Borneo and islands between all belong to the same subspecies as stated by Tsukada & Nishiyama (1980) or not. Until a more comprehensive review of the species is conducted I recommend treating itamputi as a synonym of alcibiades (syn. nov.)

[Adam Cotton]

I think it will be useful to show the specimens figured in the paper:

Syntypes of Papilio alcibiades Fabricius, 1787. © ZMUC, Copenhagen:




Graphium antiphates naira male South India, pale form, Watecolli, Coorg [= Kodagu, Karnataka] 13. i. 1929 © Reproduced with permission and with thanks to the Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London:



Graphium antiphates naira male South India, dark form, Gudalur, Ghat Rd., Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, Y. Inayoshi leg. 2. iv. 1982:



Graphium antiphates javanicus male Mt. Halimun, W Java, viii. 2004:



Graphium antiphates pompilius male Khao Soi Dao, Chantaburi, Thailand, Prasobsuk Sukkit leg. 3. iii. 2014:



Graphium antiphates alcibiades males Phuket, Thailand, A. M. Cotton leg. 8. xi. 1986:




Graphium antiphates alcibiades males W Malaysia; Ulu Gombak, Selangor, 10. iv. 1927 & Bukit
Tarek, Selangor, A. Owston leg. 6. v. 1973:




Adam.