Narrative

Papilio-zagreus and Papilio-scamander group text is based on the older Rothschild and Jordan revision of the New World Papilionidae. Changes based on the DAlmeida listing have been included. Also included are some changes based on various articles. These changes are included to comply with the taxonomy as published in 2004 by Gerardo Lamas in his checklist of Neotropical Lepidoptera. The Rothschild and Jordan text as modified by DAlmeida has been included because for many years it was the only good source of information on this group. Many serious Neotropical Papilionidae collections in the world are based on the Rothschild and Jordan organization.

Papilio zagreus group is found primarily in South America with no examples being found in Central or North America. These large brightly colored swallowtails are without tails. The species probably mimic Heliconids. All three species are somewhat orange in coloration with black.

The three species in the Papilio zagreus group are (an * indicates that this species is pictured):

SPECIES - - - - - LOCATION
Papilio zagreus* - Venezuela, Colombia to Bolivia
Papilio ascolius* - Colombia and Ecuador
Papilio bachus* - Peru and Bolivia

Gerardo Lamas in his 2004 checklist of Neotropical Lepidoptera reduced ascolius and bachus to a subspecies of Papilio zagreus.

Papilio scamander group has but four species as follows.

SPECIES - - - - - LOCATION
Papilio hellanichus - Uruguay and adjacent
Papilio scamander* - South east Brazil
Papilio birchalli* - Panama and Colombia
Papilio xanthopleura - Upper Amazon tributaries

Gerardo Lamas in his 2004 checklist of Neotropical Lepidoptera retained these four species in the Papilio scamander group. He also changed the genus in the above two groups to Pterourus.

Taxonomy

References