Papilio pompilius Fabricius, 1787 - synonym

[Adam Cotton]

Yesterday my latest paper was finally published in Butterflies (journal of the Butterfly Society of Japan). Here is the abstract:

The syntypes of Papilio pompilius Fabricius, 1787 in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow,
 were examined and compared with populations from India, SE Asia and China. The taxon is shown
 to have originated from SE China and is thus a junior synonym of Papilio antiphates Cramer, 1775
 (syn. nov.). The potential origin of the syntypes is considered, and Graphium antiphates nebulosus
 (Butler, 1881) is adopted as the valid subspecies name for populations from NE India to Indochina.
 An updated synonymic list of Graphium antiphates is presented.

It seems that everyone assumed that Fabricius' statement that the type specimens came from India was correct, and since they were far from London in Glasgow no-one actually checked.

The citation of the paper is

Cotton, A. M., Robinson, J. & Y. Inayoshi 2019. Taxonomic implications resulting from examination of the
 syntypes of Papilio pompilius Fabricius, 1787
 (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Butterflies 81: 48-55.

[Adam Cotton]

Here are photos of the syntypes of Papilio pompilius Fabricius, 1787 (copyright Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow):




Graphium antiphates antiphates summer form male:



Graphium antiphates nebulosus summer form male, Darjeeling:



Graphium antiphates nebulosus summer form male, Sagaing, NW Burma:



Adam.