Papilio machaon muetingi ORANGE

[wollastoni]

In the TOP 100 Germany, I have seen this Papilio machaon muetingi from Oman with an orange color instead of yellow.

Is the whole subspecies "orange" or is it an aberration ?

Thanks

Attachments:

[Adam Cotton]

No, this is not the normal colour. It is either an aberration, an old specimen affected by humidity, or artificially induced by UV treatment.

Adam.

[trehopr1]

Adam, you mention in your above post that humidity may have affected the overall color of the specimen (as one of the possible reasons). I am intrigued and would like to know how a color change may result. You see a little while back I posted a photo of a Troides minos from my own collection with an unusual mahogany color on the hind wings. I myself have owned that specimen for over 30 years and it has always looked the same.
I received it from a longtime friend and fellow collector who gifted it to me in his advanced age. He in turn had owned it in excess of 25 years and had acquired it from a turn of the century collection which he had been privy to "cherry-pick" in his younger years. He remarked that it looked like that in the original collection it was housed in.
I would think if humidity was the culprit would it not have caused some mold or spores to be present on the specimen. I would also think that humidity in a collection would cause the specimens "settings" to droop or look sagging. That is, they might look rather sloppily ( haphazardly) prepared. My specimen is clean throughout. Nothing present to indicate mold, high humidity or anything. And the underside of the hind wings look just like the upperside in my photo. Maybe my specimen is a unique abberation which only occurs "once in a blue moon" so to speak.

[Deleted]

I have a machaon gorganus that I hatched from a pupa in 1992 that is the same colour as the one in the picture.

[Adam Cotton]

Let's call it an aberration, then.

It doesn't look like a very old specimen which has changed colour with age, and it is best to believe in the integrity of the seller.

trehopr1 - I agree with your points, although it is quite easy to remove all traces of fungal spores. Humidity can easily cause a similar change in colour over a long period of time, especially in combination with light, but the specimen would not normally look as fresh as this one does. It doesn't have to be so humid that fungus develops on the specimen. It is also possible that exposure to certain preservative chemicals in a collection draw can cause changes in colour as well.

Adam.

[trehopr1]

Thank you Adam for your insights. You did bring up yet another good hypothesis for possible color change --- preservative chemicals used to ward off pests. I had not thought of that one ! I suppose there is no telling what people may have used as a substitute for naphthalene if they could not find it.

[troidescriton]

What?What?What?What?What?What?What?What?
Machaon Swallowtails live in Oman? seriously??
I lived in Oman for 14 years of my 20 and Seen Hypolimnas Bolina, African monarch, Lime butterfly, painted ladies, Whites and Cleopatras but NEVER have I EVER seen Machaon!!
This is soo confusing...

[troidescriton]

Jul 15, 2015 23:51:01 GMT skandinavisk said:

Jul 15, 2015 23:07:15 GMT troidescriton said:

What?What?What?What?What?What?What?What?
Machaon Swallowtails live in Oman? seriously??
I lived in Oman for 14 years of my 20 and Seen Hypolimnas Bolina, African monarch, Lime butterfly, painted ladies, Whites and Cleopatras but NEVER have I EVER seen Machaon!!
This is soo confusing...

If you want to learn about the butterflies of Oman, I recommend you to visit this page, where the book Butterflies of Oman, by Torben B. Larsen, is legally available online - click the second link on the page to have it in searchable PDF format.

Jan

That won't be useful. Oman has changed immensely over 30 years...just like the US and UK did.
All the vegetation it once had was torn down for civilization and Palm tree cultivation.
That's why there's only a small selection of butterflies. now all the different butterflies found are only migrants.
The only ones that grow there are Lime butterflies, African monarches and some tiny blues.

[wollastoni]

There are still some very interesting local butterflies in Oman.

[Adam Cotton]

Another point worth bearing in mind about machaon in Oman is that it is adapted to desert conditions, and the pupa can stay dormant for many years (more than 10 years has been recorded), and only emerges when there is sufficient rain to make the larval food plants grow. It may well be that you didn't see it because it was in diapause.

Also you should remember that it is very local, just occurring in some places, and the adult will only be flying for relatively few days, so it may have been present in exactly the right places when you were in Oman, but you didn't see it.

Adam.

[wollastoni]

10 years ! WOW !

Desert species are indeed impressive. I have been to Tunisian Sahara 10 years ago (when it was still a safe place) near the border with Algeria.
One day, it started to rain for about 30 minutes. The day after, the whole desertic area looks nearly green (small grasses and flowers appeared) and there were some Euchloe flying everywhere. It was in April.
2 weeks later, everything were dried and desertic again.

[troidescriton]

Hmmm. But where could their pupas be hiding?

[Adam Cotton]

Presumably in spaces under large stones or rocks where they are not exposed to direct sunlight. If you have ever bred machaon (probably not in Nottingham) you will know how the fully grown larva goes on a 'romp' before finding a place to pupate.

Adam.

[troidescriton]

Jul 16, 2015 22:08:38 GMT Adam Cotton said:

Presumably in spaces under large stones or rocks where they are not exposed to direct sunlight. If you have ever bred machaon (probably not in Nottingham) you will know how the fully grown larva goes on a 'romp' before finding a place to pupate.

Adam.

I hope to breed them some time and make the available in Nottingham!