want to know about subspecies of P.bianor in China.

There are 2 subspecies of Papilio bianor in mainland China:
1. Papilio bianor bianor from Sichuan across the country to Guangdong and as far north as Shandong
2. Papilio bianor gladiator from NW Yunnan southeastwards to the Red River Valley at the Vietnam border. It seems also that specimens from Motuo area of S Tibet are this subspecies.

Between these two subspecies there seems to be a border zone along the northern Yunnan border, where there is at least some genetic interchange between them.

In NE China there is a separate species, Papilio dehaanii, which is often known as Papilio bianor dehaanii. Breeding experiments and DNA analysis have shown that these are indeed separate species, and this is sympatric with Papilio bianor in Shandong. The Chinese subspecies is Papilio dehaanii dehaanii as in Korea and most of Japan.

In Taiwan there are two subspecies of Papilio bianor, thrasymedes on the main island and kotoensis on LanYu island to the southeast. There is also a population on Lu Tao Island (north of LanYu) which is intermediate, and sometimes called kwashotoensis, but this name has not been validly published.

In the Yaeyama islands (Ishigaki etc) of Japan, northeast of Taiwan, is Papilio bianor okinawensis (= junia), but the butterflies in the Japanese islands (Okinawa, Amami, Tokara) between there and the main islands of Japan all belong to Papilio dehaanii, although some people separate them as a third species, Papilio ryukyensis.

I hope this helps. Please ask if you have more questions.

Adam.

Oh,here is still 2 questions
Is P.bianor distribute in Qinghai?And what about Neimenggol?

I doubt that P. bianor would be found in Qinghai, as it is mostly too high altitude for the species, but it is possible that it might be in suitable habitat in the valleys. I have never heard of P. bianor in Qinghai though.

Similarly I have never heard of it from Neimenggol, and rather doubt that it will be found there. In reality though, it is possible that either P. bianor or P. dehaanii could be there, but there are very few records of butterflies from that area at all. I don't even know if there would be suitable habitat there or not.

Both of these places may be too dry for P. bianor in reality.

Adam.

Yes that is correct 'polyctor' from Yunnan is P. bianor gladiator. Real P. bianor polyctor occurs in NW India and Pakistan.

Also green forms of bianor do occur in Sichuan, and these were thought to be polyctor as well. Harada (1992) bred Sichuan Papilio bianor and some specimens of the next generation were the green polyctor phenotype. His conclusions that polyctor is the same species as bianor were later shown to be correct by DNA analysis.

Adam.