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Post by queenbug on Aug 26, 2014 23:07:44 GMT -8
Hi can you please confirm id for me. Is it Papilio diephobus deiphontes ? is it a Female. Location Philippines. thankyou  Attachments:
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Post by Adam Cotton on Aug 27, 2014 1:09:45 GMT -8
Yes it is a female, but it is Papilio deiphobus rumanzovia (note ei, not ie in the species name).
Papilio rumanzovia used to be considered as a separate species, but Page & Treadaway (2003) placed it within Papilio deiphobus, which I agree with. Subspecies deiphontes comes from N. Moluccas, Indonesia.
Adan.
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Post by queenbug on Aug 27, 2014 2:08:29 GMT -8
Hi Adam, thankyou. I was tossing up between rumanzovia and deiphontes so thankyou for clarifying for me |
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tome
Junior Member
Posts: 24
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Post by tome on Aug 27, 2014 3:33:15 GMT -8
Adam, could you enlighten me on the reasoning behind placing rumanzovia as a subspecies under deiphobus? If I remember correctly Page & Treadaway did not offer much explanation in this regard and their view has been questioned. I agree that the appearance is very similar to deiphobus of course, but there are no other species (?) with a distribution limited to the Moluccas and the Philippines although there seem to be a connection. I have always imagined that connection to be via Sulawesi, but here we have P. ascalaphus occurring on Sulawesi.
Tom
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Post by Adam Cotton on Aug 27, 2014 8:28:17 GMT -8
Tom,
Page & Treadaway placed rumanzovia as a subspecies of deiphobus based on genitalia. Initial DNA work I am currently involved with clearly places rumanzovia within deiphobus as well.
With regard to distribution, rumanzovia is found on Talaud and Sangir as well as the Philippine islands. When sea level was lower there would have been a corridor of islands south of Talaud through which the ancestor of modern day rumanzovia could reach the Philippines. It seems from DNA analysis that rumanzovia and deiphontes are more closely related to each other, and tailed deiphobus from South Moluccas is sister to the pair. This implies that the species spread northwards and diversified as it went.
Treadaway & Schroeder (2012) list 5 land bridges through which butterflies could reach the Philippines when the sea level was up to 180m lower in the late middle Pleistocene, 160,000 years ago, including one bridge from Halmahera through the Talaud Archipelago to SE-Mindanao. There was also another land bridge from Sulawesi through Sangir to S Mindanao, but this was separate from the connection with Moluccas via Talaud.
One other example of a Philippine and Moluccas distribution in Papilionidae would be Graphium euphrates with ornatus in Halmahera. This latter taxon has differentiated significantly, but whether regarded as conspecific with euphrates or not, they are certainly sister taxa. I expect that there will be similar examples in other families of Lepidoptera.
Adam.
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tome
Junior Member
Posts: 24
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Post by tome on Aug 27, 2014 22:47:12 GMT -8
Thank you Adam,
This is very interesting. I can't wait to read the results of your study!
Tom
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