An interesting Papilio clytia

[deliasfanatic]

I've recently acquired this specimen of Papilio clytia flavolimbatus, collected in 1921 by W. McMullen. The interesting thing is that its location is given as the Nicobar Islands. I've not found other records of the species from that location, the Andaman Islands being given as the location for flavolimbatus. Comparing to the D'Abrera photo of the latter, I don't see any differences.

Adam, are you aware of any records for this species from the Nicobars? This is the same specimen that is illustrated on the "swallowtails.net" website, which contains confused information. The specimen bears another label, more recently hand-written, giving its name incorrectly as "flavilinus". This was apparently picked up on swallowtails.net when this specimen was photographed for the website, since that name is given as coming from the Nicobars, along with flavolimbatus from the Andamans. As far as I can tell, "flavilinus" is simply an error and is not in any way an actual name.

In any event, it's an interesting and attractive subspecies.

P clytia flavolimbatus M 1259 by D B, on Flickr

[Adam Cotton]

Indeed the name "flavilinus" is at best an incorrect subsequent spelling of flavolimbatus, and it has not been used in Papilionidae at all.

I will see what I can find about clytia in the Nicobars, but not now, as it's 6am and I'm late for bed .

[Adam Cotton]

After checking several publications, including old work such as Talbot (1939) Fauna of British India and several papers by Mohanraj & Veenakumari on Andaman and Nicobar butterflies, and lastly their latest 2011 paper, Butterflies of the Andaman and Nicobar islands: History of collection and checklist (Zootaxa 3050: 1–36), I have been unable to find any records of Papilio clytia flavolimbatus from the Nicobar Islands at all. This species has not been recorded on Nicobar at all.

As a result I would guess that this specimen was incorrectly labelled Nicobars in error, and almost certainly came from the Andaman Islands. It looks almost identical to mine, although the white markings may be ever so slightly larger in your specimen, no doubt due to individual variation. In reality it is very unlikely that this specimen came from Nicobar, as in general the two groups of islands do not share subspecies in common, and in Papilionidae in particular all species have different subspecies on Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The subspecies development within the Nicobar Islands is even more complex than between Nicobar and Andaman, with the same species having up to 3 separate subspecies (Pachliopta aristolochiae) in the northern, central and southern islands of the Nicobar chain.

Adam.

[timmsyrj]

I was just checking the Butterflies of India website , ifoundbutterflies.org which states s.sp flavolimbatus from Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Rich

[nomad]

It would seem strange if the locality data on this old label was wrong but you never know. Perhaps there is something somewhere of the collector visiting the Nicobar Islands. W.F. McMullen was probably a colonial official or in the army when these Islands were part of British India. 

[timmsyrj]

I notice it says Nicobars which refers to an area rather than Nicobar Island, Andaman and Nicobar came under the same commissioner for a while so locally this area could have been known as Nicobars rather than Andamans region? Just a thought.

Rich

[nomad]

This seems to be the same specimen. www.swallowtails.net/C_clytia.htm

[Adam Cotton]

Feb 13, 2016 11:32:22 GMT nomad said:

This seems to be the same specimen. www.swallowtails.net/C_clytia.htm

Yes, Danny did say it is in his original post.

Adam.

PS. I just looked at the link, and it is worth pointing out that the male from Chaing Mai [sic], Thailand, supposedly form janus is actually form disimillima. The male of this form is not as dark as the female, by the way. Form janus is brown, similar to form clytia but with black spots at the apex of the forewing as opposed to white. It is actually a hybrid form resulting when form clytia mates with the blue sheen form papone.

[Adam Cotton]

Feb 13, 2016 9:39:19 GMT timmsyrj said:

I was just checking the Butterflies of India website , ifoundbutterflies.org which states s.sp flavolimbatus from Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Rich

That may be an issue with their website layout and how their distributions are compiled.

See
www.ifoundbutterflies.org/#!/sp/601/Papilio-clytia
and click on the Distribution tab.

They only actually record it from near Ferrargunj, S Andaman, but they group Andaman & Nicobar together so the algorithm may give both in the overall distribution. I will mention this to Krushnamegh Kunte when I get a chance.

Adam.

[Adam Cotton]

Feb 13, 2016 11:09:40 GMT nomad said:

It would seem strange if the locality data on this old label was wrong but you never know. Perhaps there is something somewhere of the collector visiting the Nicobar Islands. W.F. McMullen was probably a colonial official or in the army when these Islands were part of British India. 

Peter,

I was thinking earlier that perhaps you could find something out about the collector.

Adam.

PS. I expect it is likely he will have visited both Andaman and Nicobar. It is always possible that the data got mixed up as a result.

[deliasfanatic]

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone. I was also wondering whether the collector may have visited both island groups and confused the data. Have any of you seen other specimens collected by him, and if so, are others questionably labelled as Nicobars?

The swallowtails.net website is filled with errors, typos, and omissions; not very useful for more than a cursory glance, unfortunately.

[nomad]

W.F. Mcmullen was certainly collecting in the Andaman Islands.

" An additional series of nine males and five females was reared by J. H. Watson from cocoons he received from W. F. McMullen; this lot also includes five cocoons, a vial of dried ova, and a pupa. One cocoon is labelled “Haddo, Andamans.” Some of Watson’s material was figured by Packard (1914: pl. 95)". Page 18 at the link below.

From lepidopteraresearchfoundation.org/pdf/pdf32/32-016.pdf

[Adam Cotton]

Feb 13, 2016 14:34:34 GMT deliasfanatic said:

The swallowtails.net website is filled with errors, typos, and omissions; not very useful for more than a cursory glance, unfortunately.

Back when this website was still on the old server maybe 10 years ago I contacted Brad Murray (I think that is his name) and offered to help correct errors for him, but he wasn't interested.

Adam.

[nomad]

Feb 12, 2016 19:40:57 GMT deliasfanatic said:

I've recently acquired this specimen of Papilio clytia flavolimbatus, collected in 1921 by W. McMullen. The interesting thing is that its location is given as the Nicobar Islands. I've not found other records of the species from that location, the Andaman Islands being given as the location for flavolimbatus. Comparing to the D'Abrera photo of the latter, I don't see any differences.

Adam, are you aware of any records for this species from the Nicobars? This is the same specimen that is illustrated on the "swallowtails.net" website, which contains confused information. The specimen bears another label, more recently hand-written, giving its name incorrectly as "flavilinus". This was apparently picked up on swallowtails.net when this specimen was photographed for the website, since that name is given as coming from the Nicobars, along with flavolimbatus from the Andamans. As far as I can tell, "flavilinus" is simply an error and is not in any way an actual name.

In any event, it's an interesting and attractive subspecies.

P clytia flavolimbatus M 1259 by D B, on Flickr

I have been asked to post this information here.


Dear deliasfanatic, James Hogan here, from the Oxford University Museum.

This is a very interesting specimen. It originates from the now defunct Hill Museum owned by the collector James Joicey. The number ’78.21.’ is a Hill Museum accession number, probably meaning the 78th lot of specimens accessioned by the museum in 1921. At Oxford there are 3 other papilionids with the same number, collected by McMullen and labelled ‘Nicobars’: Papilio prexaspes andamanicus, P.mayo and Atrophaneura aristolochiae camorta. Given that both your specimen and the P.mayo here are both labelled ‘Nicobars’, I assume Nicobars in this context applies to both the Nicobar and Andaman Islands.

I have been working on Joicey’s papilionid collection on and off for a couple of years, and hope to get something in print next year.'



James.

[deliasfanatic]

Hello James - Thanks very much for posting this interesting information. I'm always glad to learn more about historic collectors and specimens; I'll look forward to your upcoming publication!