Papilio machaon gorganus Query.

[nomad]

Can someone tell me, perhaps Adam can, why all authors refer to the widespread Continental Papilio machaon as gorganus Fruhstofer 1922 when Verity 1919 had named it bigenerata? Is it because that now subspecies bigenerata is regarded as occurring in its own fauna region. According to R.L.H. Dennis in his 'British Butterflies their Origin and Establishment 'published in 1977, bigenerara= gorganus, "existing west and north of the Alps with a southern boundary from the Gironde to the Cottian Alps and north to the Baltic, type locality given as Vendee".

Anyway here are some of my images of Papilio machaon that were taken in the Alps of Switzerland. I noticed in the Swiss Alps of the Valias that this Swallowtail was not common but occurred up to 2000 meters. It had a much stronger flight that ssp britannicus Seitz 1909, gilding and soaring up and down the mountainsides. The butterfly did not seem to stop much to visit flowers but when it did it quivered non stop making it very difficult to photograph. When it did occasionally stop to take nectar, it did not seem particular about which flowers it visited. In the first image it is visiting Echium species and in the second the Milk Vetch Oxytropis campestris.



Near Rosswold,  Valias, Switzerland 1700 meters .



Above the Gondo Gorge , Valias, Switzerland 1600 meters .

[Adam Cotton]

Unfortunately bigenerata Verity is an unavailable name - as with so many of Verity's names it is infrasubspecific. gorganus Fruhstorfer is the oldest available name that can be applied to the subspecies.

The availability of names described by Verity can be checked in Kudrna, O. 1983. An annotated catalogue of the butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) named by Roger Verity. J. Res. Lepid. 21(1): 1-106 available here:
www.lepidopteraresearchfoundation.org/journals/21/PDF21/21-001.pdf

Adam.

[cabintom]

In case anyone else is wondering:

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/infrasubspecific

"infrasubspecific ‎(not comparable)

(zoology, bacteriology) pertaining to a taxon at a rank lower than subspecies. The names of such taxa are not regulated by a nomenclatural Code."

[nomad]

Many thanks Adam for the explanation and link to the Pdf.

[Adam Cotton]

Apologies, everyone, I just checked the entry for bigenerata Verity, 1919 on page 42 in Kudrna (1983) (link above) and it seems that bigenerata is actually NOT infrasubspecific, but is a nomen nudum. Yesterday I didn't check before replying to your question. Verity used the name without any description, so the 1919 name is unavailable in nomenclature. In 1947 he did describe the name in a valid manner, but by then it was a junior synonym.

On the same page you will see an example of why many of Verity's names are infrasubspecific. The taxon chinensis Verity, 1907 was described as Papilio machaon hippocrates chinensis and a quadrinomial name is automatically regarded as infrasubspecific under the ICZN Code, unless the second name is a subgenus name in ( ), rather than a species name as in this example.

Unfortunately Verity described most of his names in this manner, as his interpretation of subspecies, races and subraces did not conform to the standard binomial system. In Kudrna's work only those names printed in capital letters (eg. KOREANA on p. 44, ORIENTIS on p. 45) are regarded as valid under the Code, even if the name was originally described as a trinomial, rather than a quadrinomial, because Verity indicated these to be of infrasubspecific status in the original description. Trinomials that may possibly be considered as valid are marked with a *. Kudrna explains the details of his judgement on Verity's names in the introduction to the paper.

Adam.

[nomad]

Adam, Thank you for the extra information . Does seem a shame that Verity named this subspecies first and others yet so many of his names are not valid, if only he had added a few other words with bigenerara. Does seem a bit harsh on Verity that we now use Fruhstofer name gorganus. Still I suppose we all must follow the rules.

[Adam Cotton]

That's the problem with not naming things correctly, and why the oldest available name HAS to be the valid one. In the case of a nomen nudum like bigenerata there is no way to know precisely what the name refers to, and as a result if the taxon subsequently is shown actually to comprise two separate entities it is impossible to know which one to apply the old name to and which needs a new name.

Verity had his own ideas about the species concept and the rankings of names, many of which ranks were clearly infrasubspecific, such as naming each different generation of the same taxon.

Adam.