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Post by dynastes on Jan 11, 2014 5:26:50 GMT -8
Help identify subspecies of Papilio (=Achillides) ulysses
There are no data
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jan 11, 2014 12:43:03 GMT -8
At a guess I would say it is Papilio ulysses autolycus, and more likely to be from West Papua, which some people separate as ssp. altovolensis Schaeffler & Schmidbauer, 2004. I am not sure of the validity of this subspecies, as I haven't yet paid much attention to Papilio ulysses.
Adam.
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Post by dynastes on Jan 11, 2014 12:56:51 GMT -8
Adam, thank you very much.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jan 11, 2014 13:31:24 GMT -8
Just as a clarification of the phrase "At a guess" that I started my reply with, I should point out that the 'guess' was composed of examination of the spread specimens in my collection and photographs in various books and papers, rather than just a guess per se.
I have spread specimens of most subspecies of ulysses, but I also have very many more papered specimens that need spreading some time, whenever I get round to studying this species in detail.
What I can say is the shape of the blue patch on the hindwing most closely resembles New Guinea specimens, and the tip of the forewing cell also is similar to the New Guinea phenotype.
Having said that, the lack of data really does mean that I am guessing based on the visible evidence, and it should always be born in mind that individual specimens can vary. This specimen does look like the West Papua specimens in the original description of altovolensis, but I am not sure of the real variation within that population or between those of West Papua and PNG to the east.
Adam.
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