Reference photo of a pinned Papilio peranthus specimen, upper side

Reference photo

Photo: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London · Natural History Museum, London · CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized). Not the specimen in Lucy’s drawer.

Tray 2 of 39

Papilio peranthus

Fabricius, 1787

Order by November 30 for delivery by Christmas.

Your framed specimen is a different individual of the same species, chosen and mounted by Lucy.

  • Papilionidae
  • Butterfly
For young explorers

Tiny layers in its wing scales help make its bright colors.

Found only in Indonesia, it has shimmering wing patches whose colour comes from tiny layered structures in the wing scales.

Catalog label
Family
Papilionidae
Subfamily
Papilioninae
Tribe
Papilionini
Where it lives
Java, Celebes

From the catalog of Lucy Garcia Salik, PhD. A mounted specimen from a licensed supplier.

Research notes

From published sources, not from Lucy’s catalog. Each note lists where it came from.

Description

This is a tailed swallowtail whose look changes from one island to the next. Several island forms (subspecies) have been named. Specialists say that the way these forms are grouped, especially in the Lesser Sunda Islands, is still not settled and needs more study.

Where it lives

The sources place this swallowtail in Indonesia: on Java, on Sulawesi, and across the Lesser Sunda Islands. Separate island populations have been described from places such as Bali, Lombok and Flores, and from smaller islands nearby.

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