Knight butterfly

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Knight butterfly
Sail butterfly (Iphiclides podalirius)

Sail butterfly ( Iphiclides podalirius )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Superordinate : New winged wing (Neoptera)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Subordination : Glossata
Superfamily : Papilionoidea
Family : Knight butterfly
Scientific name
Papilionidae
Latreille , 1809
Subfamilies

The swallowtail butterfly (Papilionidae) are a family from the order of the butterflies . Knight butterflies include many of the most colorful and impressive species in the world, including many large butterflies. The European moths reach wingspans of 45 to 75 millimeters, but there are much larger animals, such as. B. some of the genus Troides and Ornithoptera , which occur in Australasia ( Australia and the surrounding islands), which are among the largest butterflies in the world. The Queen Alexandra bird butterfly ( Ornithoptera alexandrae ) is the largest butterfly in the world.

features

This family differs from all other butterfly families in three features:

  • The caterpillars of all types have a neck fork ( osmaterium ) between the head and the first thorax segment , which can be everted in case of danger. In addition, the head and the front part of the body are drawn in (contracted) backwards and downwards. This neck fork is brightly colored, beaded, and exudes a bad odor caused by terpenes . In addition to the visual deterrent, this serves to spoil the appetite of predators. The chemical cocktail is composed differently depending on the type.
  • The first and second anal artery of the forewings are reduced to a single one (1A) in all other butterfly species, or the second anal artery joins the first so that only one artery reaches the edge of the wing. Only in the knight's butterflies is the second (2A) present as a short curve from the base of the wing towards the inner edge of the wing. (see grafic)
    Independent vein 2A in knight butterflies
  • The two sclerotized (hardened) membranes on the underside between the head and thorax, to which the muscles for head movement are anchored, are fused together.
Swallowtail caterpillar with everted osmaterium
Red Apollo

distribution

The distribution of the family extends all over the world (with the exception of Antarctica). Most of the species are native to the tropics of East and Southeast Asia . It is in these areas that human influence is most likely to affect their habitats.

Some types, such as B. most of the members of the genus Parnassius , live at great heights. The high alpine Apollo ( Parnassius phoebus ) comes z. B. in the Alps up to an altitude of 3,000 meters.

Food crops

The caterpillars of the various knight butterfly species feed on a wide range of different plants; but most fall into one of five families: aristolochiaceae (Aristolochiaceae) shed apple plants (Annonaceae), laurel family (Lauraceae), Umbelliferae (Apiaceae) and Rutaceae (Rutaceae).

The types of Triben Zerynthiini , Luehdorfiini and Troidini are the only ones that specialize almost exclusively in the Easter lush plants . By eating these partially poisonous plants, which contain aristolochic acid, both the caterpillars and the moths of some of these species become poisonous, which protects them from predators.

Systematics

Differences between the subfamilies

The knight butterflies are divided into four subfamilies:

In the extinct subfamily of the Praepapilioninae, which currently consists of a genus with two species, those species are grouped together, each known from a fossil find. These were found in rock formations from the Eocene in the USA ( Colorado ). Together with the Baroniinae, which contain only one species, Baronia brevicornis , they are the most primitive representatives of the knightly butterflies. These two families have several things in common, but their relationship has not yet been determined. For a long time they were considered a sister group , but this is now doubted.

The assumption that the Parnassiinae, which differ from the other subfamilies mainly through their sexual organs, and that the Papilioninae form a sister relationship, is most widespread and also accepted, although according to the latest findings, the complete relationships within the knightly butterflies should be turned inside out.

The relationships are illustrated in the following cladogram from (Miller, 1987):

 Papilionidae  
  NN  
  Parnassiinae  

 Parnassiini


   

 Zerynthiini



  Papilioninae  
  NN  

 Leptocircini (Graphiini)


   

 Teinopalpini



  NN  

 Papilionini


   

 Triodini





   

 Praepapilioninae †


   

 Baroniinae


Template: Klade / Maintenance / 3

Taxonomy of the butterfly family

Swallowtail caterpillar
dovetail

A total of 551 species (as of 2005) have been discovered worldwide, but in the German-speaking countries (D, CH, A) the family is represented with only six species, in Great Britain there is even only one species, the swallowtail ( Papilio machaon ). There are a total of 14 species across Europe :

European species

Subfamily Parnassiinae ( Apollofalter und Osterluzeifalter )

Subfamily Papilioninae ( swallowtails )

Non-European species (selection)

photos

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ^ T. Eisner, YC Meinwald, 1965 The defensive secretions of a caterpillar (Papilio) Science 150: 1733-1735
  2. ↑ JV Euw, T. Reichstein, Miriam Rothschild: Aristolochic Acid-I in the Swallowtail Butterfly (Fabr.) (Papilionidae). In: Israel Journal of Chemistry . 6, 1968, p. 659, doi : 10.1002 / ijch.196800084 .
  3. ↑ Durden, CJ, and H. Rose. 1978, Butterflies from the middle Eocene: the earliest occurence of fossil Papilionidae (Lepidoptera) , Pearce-Sellards Ser. Tex. Mem. Mus. 29: 1-25
  4. ↑ Nazari, V., Zakharov, EV, Sperling, FAH, 2006, Phylogeny, historical biogeography, and taxonomic ranking of Parnassiinae (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae) based on morphology and seven genes Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
  5. ↑ Miller, JS 1987, Phylogenetic studies in the Papilioninae (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) , Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 186: 365-512
  6. ↑ Papilionidae - revised GloBIS / GART species checklist (2nd draft). Christoph L. Häuser, accessed October 3, 2006 .
  7. ↑ http://www.lepiforum.de/cgi-bin/lepiwiki.pl?Papilionidae
  8. ↑ https://fauna-eu.org/cdm_dataportal/taxon/5b4fedd8-c470-406a-92f1-39457f067b37

literature

  • Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa. 3 Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7 .
  • Hans-Josef Weidemann: Butterflies: observe, determine. Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89440-115-X .
  • Günter Ebert: The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 1: Tagfalter I. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8001-3451-9 .
  • Manfred Koch , Wolfgang Heinicke: We identify butterflies. 3. Edition. Neumann, Radebeul 1991, ISBN 3-7402-0092-8 .

Web links

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