''Byasa alcinous'', the Chinese windmill, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...

of the family

Papilionidae Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includes the larg ...

Description

''Byasa alcinous'' has a

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan o ...

reaching about . The basic colour of the wings is black or dark brown. The hindwings have long tails and a chain of red spots at the edges. The thorax and the abdomen are mainly black on the upperside and the underside, with several black spots, while the other areas are red. Adults are on wing from May to August in two generations. The larvae feed on '' Aristolochia'' species including '' A. mandshhuriensis'', '' A. debilis'' and '' A. manchuriensis''. Subspecies has been recorded on '' A. shimadai'', '' A. liukiuensis'', '' A. kankauensis'', '' A. elegans'', '' A. debilis'', '' A. kaempferii'', '' A. onoei'', '' A. tagala'', ''

Cocculus trilobus ''Cocculus'' is a genus of 11 species of woody vines and shrubs, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of North America, Asia and Africa. The common name moonseed is also used for the closely related genus ''Menispermum''. Selected spe ...

'' and '' Metaplexis chinensis''. The species overwinters as a pupa.

Distribution

This species can be found in the Asian part of the

Palaearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

and partially in the Indomalayan realm, from

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

, and eastern China to the southern

Ussuri The Ussuri or Wusuli (russian: Уссури; ) is a river that runs through Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais, Russia and the southeast region of Northeast China. It rises in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, flowing north and forming part of the ...

region,

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and Japan.Russian Insects
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Habitat

''Byasa alcinous'' is present in mixed broadleaved forests.

Subspecies

* ''B. a. alcinous'' * ''B. a. confusus'' (Rothschild, 1895) (Ussuri) * ''B. a. yakushimana'' (Esaki & Umeno, 1929) (Japan) * ''B. a. loochooana'' (Rothschild, 1896) (Japan) * ''B. a. miyakoensis'' (Omoto, 1960) (Japan) * ''B. a. bradanus'' (Fruhstorfer, 1908) (Japan) * ''B. a. mansonensis'' (Fruhstorfer, 1901) (south-central and south-eastern China, Taiwan)

Gallery

File:Atrophaneura alcinous at Gunma Insect World.jpg, Dorsal view File:Papipionidae - Atrophaneura alcinous.JPG, Ventral view File:JakouAgeha 07c7529.jpg, Caterpillar File:ジャコウアゲハ蛹-2.jpg, Chrysalis

References

External links

Global Butterfly Information System

Syntype In biological nomenclature, a syntype is any one of two or more biological types that is listed in a description of a taxon where no holotype was designated. Precise definitions of this and related terms for types have been established as part of ...

text, images of subspecies ''alcinous'', ''nana'', ''pacifica'' and ''parvummaculatus''.
Panoramio

Byasa Taxa named by Johann Christoph Friedrich Klug Butterflies described in 1836 {{Papilionidae-stub