Graphium chironides

Graphium chironides
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Genus:	Graphium
Species:	G. chironides
Binomial name
Graphium chironides (Honrath, 1884)
Synonyms
Papilio chiron var. chironides Honrath, 1884 Papilio chiron Wallace, 1865 Graphium clanis chironicum Eliot, 1982 Papilio bathycles chiron f.vern. ligyra Jordan, 1909 Papilio clanis Jordan, 1909 Graphium clanis malayanum Eliot, 1982

Graphium chironides, the veined jay, is a species of butterfly found in Assam and other parts of Northeast India and Southeast Asia.

Description

For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

Male (1, 1a) and female (1b, 1c)

Closely resembles in colour and in the disposition of the markings Graphium eurypylus, races jason and axion more especially the latter, but on the upperside the anterior markings are all strongly tinged with yellow and the spots or patches that compose the discal band on both forewing and hindwing are well separated one from the other; on the hindwing, moreover, the apical spot of the subterminal series is invariably white, not pale green like the other spots of the series, and is very often elongate and diffuse. Underside: forewing very similar to that of axion. Hindwing: with the following silvery white markings: a moderately broad basal band reaches from costa across the wing and along the dorsum to the tornal angle, broad elongate streaks in the cell and in interspaces 2 and 3, a small spot at base of interspace 4, an inwardly conical larger elongate spot at base of 6, a very large quadrate spot in 7, and an elongate spot like that in 6 in interspace but outwardly not inwardly conical, interior to the two latter spots are two broad lunular spots in interspaces 7 and 8; all the anteriorly basal markings are strongly tinged with silky yellow; on the outer half of the wing there is a postdiscal series of orange yellow and a subterminal complete series of silvery-white spots, the upper two of which have further short narrow similarly-coloured streaks below them in the interspaces. Antennae head and thorax black, the thorax with dark greyish pubescence, abdomen brownish black; beneath and the abdomen laterally marked and streaked with white.

Subspecies

• G. c. chironides (southern Yunnan, Assam)
• G. c. clanis (Jordan, 1909)
• G. c. malayanum Eliot, 1982 (Malaysia)
• G. c. chironides punctatus Page & Treadaway 2014 (Laos and southern Thailand)

Taxonomy

Synonym of Graphium chiron (Wallace, 1865). Formerly regarded as a subspecies of Graphium bathycles but raised to specific level by Saigusa et al.