Papilio ulysses
| Papilio ulysses | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Papilio ulysses |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Papilio ulysses | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
Papilio ulysses , also known under the English name Mountain Swallowtail (" Mountain Swallowtail ") and the German name Ulysses Schwalbenschwanz or Odysseusfalter , is a butterfly from the family of the knightly butterflies (Papilionidae). Male specimens are clearly noticeable in flight due to their bright, iridescent light blue wings.
The distribution area is in northern Australia and New Guinea .
features
The moths reach a wingspan of 120 to 140 millimeters.
Wing top
In contrast to the underside, the upper side of the wing is different in both sexes ( sexual dimorphism ).
The forewings are generally black in color, but in the males in the basal region and the half of the discal region inclined towards the body they are characterized by a very noticeable shimmering light blue area, the edge of which runs like a zigzag line. The median vein is highlighted in black. There is a small black spot on the discoid cross vein. The males have a fur-like area on the tip of the forewings. The females have a smaller area of the light blue area, but have a series of blue spots on the edge of the hind wings. The blue of the females is also rather dull and not bright, like that of the males.
The region around the body is dusted with green scales . The hind wings are black and light blue except for the submarginal region and the upper fifth (on the front edge) of the post-disk region . The outer edge is serrated and has a tail extension. The region around the body is dusted with green scales.
Under UV light, the light blue areas of the males show two reflection maxima . One comes from a micro-depression, the other from a micro-elevation on its scales . The reflection maxima change at different angles of incidence: The blue color is made up of two different spectral colors in the blue range, which alternate depending on the incidence of UV light.
The black areas of the wings of Papilio ulysses reflect very little light in places, which is due to carbon nanotubes on their surface. More than 99.6% of the incident light is absorbed. According to scientists at the University of Exeter , it's the darkest black ever measured.
Wing underside
The underside of the forewings is the same in both sexes, but has little in common with the upper side. The wings are generally brown, but the triangle between the inner angle and the apex and the inner edge of the border between the submarginal region and the post-disk region and the inner angle is significantly lighter than the rest of the wing. Except for the submarginal region, this area is heavily pollinated with individual, white scales. The underside of the hind wings is dark brown and is heavily pollinated with individual, white scales in the area of the border between the basal region and the disk region. The submarginal region is held in a lighter brown and is characterized by several light brown spots that contain a purple stripe.
body
The body is dark brown to black and has green scales on the thorax .
Biotope
Papilio ulysses inhabits tropical rainforests and gardens of urban villa suburbs.
food
His forage plants include diamond plants (Rutaceae), verbena plants (Verbenaceae) and citrus plants . Its preferred food plant in Australia is Melicope elleryana (English Pink Flowered Doughwood ).
Development and behavior
The caterpillars of Papilio ulysses are green with countless white scales and have a white horizontal stripe.
When looking for a partner, the male moths very often react to blue objects with which they can be attracted.
Tree-like rhombus plants with a height of less than two meters are preferred for laying eggs.
threat
The species is legally protected in Australia, although not threatened. In the past, however, it was threatened by the forestry use of the melicope elleryana , which it uses to lay eggs.
Subspecies
- Papilio ulysses ambiguus ( Rothschild )
- Papilio ulysses ampelius ( Rothschild )
- Papilio ulysses autolycus ( Felder , 1865 )
- Papilio ulysses dohertius ( Rothschild )
- Papilio ulysses gabrielis ( Rothschild , 1898)
- Papilio ulysses georgius ( Rothschild )
- Papilio ulysses joesa ( Butler , 1869 )
- Papilio ulysses morotaicus ( Rothschild )
- Papilio ulysses nigerrimus
- Papilio ulysses orsippus ( Godman & Salvin )
- Papilio ulysses oxyartes ( Fruhstorfer )
- Papilio ulysses telegonus ( fields , 1860 )
- Papilio ulysses telemachus
Similar species
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Paplilio ulysses - Cairns, Queensland, Australia. (video) YouTube, February 3, 2011, accessed March 10, 2013 .
- ↑ a b P. Vukusic, JR Sambles, CR Lawrence, RJ Wootton: Sculpted-multilayer optical effects in two species of Papilio butterfly . In: Applied Optics . tape 40 , 2001, p. 1116-1125 . ( online ( Memento from February 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ))
- ^ A b Y. Y. Diao, XY Liu: Mysterious coloring: structural origin of color mixing for two breeds of Papilio butterflies . In: Opt Express . tape 19 , no. 10 , May 9, 2011, p. 9232-9241 , doi : 10.1364 / OE.19.009232 , PMID 21643177 (English).
- ↑ a b c d e f butterflycorner.net: Papilio ulysses (accessed on March 7, 2009)
- ↑ Sascha Chaimowicz: The total black. In: time online. No. 15, April 8, 2010.
literature
- ED Edwards, J. Newland, L. Regan: Hesperioidea, Papilionoidea. (= Zoological catalog of Australia. Volume 31: Lepidoptera. Part 6: Hesperioidea, Papilionoidea ). CSIRO Publication, Collingwood 2001, ISBN 0-643-06700-0 .
- N. Mark Collins, Michael G. Morris: Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World: The IUCN Red Data Book. IUCN, 1985, ISBN 2-88032-603-6 .
- Erich Bauer, Thomas Frankenbach: Butterflies of the earth. Part I: Papilionidae. I: Achillides, Bhutanitis, Teinopalpus. Goecke & Evers, Keltern 1998, ISBN 3-931374-61-0 .
