Absolutely amazing ...

That is really cool Adam!

No, I don't run a business. I breed Papilionidae for my own research projects.

Among other things I have been breeding about a dozen selected Papilio memnon lineages for more than 5 years. All of the stock originated from a number of pupae given to me by a friend in Wang Chin, Phrae which included offspring of a female my friend caught that must have been the result of a crossover within the 'supergene', as it had forewings like form butlerianus with a white streak along the lower edge, and hindwings of normal form agenor.

I have been selectively breeding the various forms that have arisen from the original stock, and 'creating' new forms not normally found in the wild as a result (although they could theoretically occur if the right gene combinations were to occur). For example I obtained some specimens with more white than normal on the forewings, and have selectively bred those over several years to produce a mostly white female. Here's an example, but this is not as white as many:



The gene pool produced the recessive form butlerianus after a couple of generations, as I expected, and also contained the standard but variable agenor and distantianus forms.

Recently I crossed the 'super-white' agenor with distantianus, and am now selecting distantianus offspring with paler forewings for further breeding. Interestingly the forewing comes out intermediate, rather than either dark or white in this case. I have also been selecting distantianus forms crossed with a spotless agenor, which produce distantianus offspring with beautifully coloured hindwings with reduced black submarginal spots.

Of course there is one obstacle to such breeding experiments - since the males are all the same I can only select females and mate them with males from the same lineage. I cannot tell whether the male carries the genes that I see expressed in the females, but generally after several generations there is a much higher likelihood that the males do carry the genes I am trying to select.

Every so often I have to dilute the genes by crossing 2 of the lineages and selecting the offspring again in order to prevent excessive inbreeding.

Adam.

The aim is to eventually publish a paper showing how selective breeding from a single population of a polymorphic species can lead to the production of a wide range of different phenotypes. Currently I am continuing the breeding experiments and plan to publish in a while, possibly in Butterflies (Teinopalpus).

Adam.

"I am somewhat interested in understanding, though not trying to get you to spoil your results so far, if you're exploring a possible mimicry ring."


Not really, sort of the opposite, I am exploring what can be achieved with phenotype by "unnatural" selection.

Indeed natural selection produces mimetic forms, since less of the butterflies that look like distasteful models are eaten by predators. Thus there are forms of subspecies agenor that mimic Atrophaneura varuna varuna and astorion females (form butlerianus), Atrophaneura varuna zaleucus female (form agenor) and Losaria coon (form distantianus).

The male does indeed occur in a single form and is generally regarded as non-mimetic, normally flying fast with a tumbling Papilio flight, but in reality when males stop to feed at flowers they change their behaviour to appear much more like Atrophaneura (note the dark colour with red at the base of the wings), and instead of flying fast they flutter like Troidini. Of course it would be difficult to fly fast and feed at the same time, so they use this mimetic pattern to discourage predators.

A closely related species, Papilio alcmenor, is also only supposed to be mimetic in the female, with the female being a very good mimic of Byasa polyeuctes. In fact the live male is also a very good mimic of male Atrophaneura varuna, and you really need to look twice when you see one mud-puddling to be sure which species it is.

Adam.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Indeed P. memnon is an interesting subject for this type of study precisely because of the variation in phenotype that has arisen due to mimicry.

Iphiclides belongs to tribe Leptocircini (kite swallowtails) not Troidini. There aren't any representatives of the Troidini in Europe or Africa (except Pharmacophagus antenor in Madagascar).

Basically the Troidini beat their forewings quite fast over a rather narrow range above and below horizontal while holding their hindwings almost still - these are only normally used in flight for steering. This has the effect of making the aposematic wing pattern along with the often red body (note there are very few Papilio species with any red on the body itself, bootes in Asia and the anchisiades group in the Americas) highly visible.

Adam.

What can i say but Amazing! so great to see what you have done Adam with that 1 that i caught so long ago. wonderful and keep up the great work that you do

best wishes Rob

Congratulations !!! Just WOW !!!