''Cethosia cydippe'', the eastern red lacewing, is a species of butterfly from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, New Guinea and nearby islands. The Australian subspecies, ''C. c. chrysippe'', is known as the red lacewing butterfly.

Description

The imagines have scarlet wings with thick black edges and a diagonal white patch on the forewings. The underside is orange with similar white patches and lines of black spots, each with a white outline. The wingspan is around .

Ecology and life cycle

Pale yellow eggs are laid in groups of 50 on the host plant. The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

s which hatch from those eggs are herbivorous, feeding on vines in the family Passifloraceae, including ''

Adenia heterophylla ''Adenia heterophylla'', commonly known in Australia as the lacewing vine, is a climbing plant in the family Passifloraceae. It has a broad distribution spanning the equator, from the south eastern corner of China, through Indochina and Malesia ...

'' (lacewing vine) and '' Hollrungia aurantioides'' (Queensland passion-fruit). They are black with yellow bands and long black hairs, and form congregations on the host plants. The pupae are brown and spiky with black and gold markings, hang from a cremaster and resemble a dead leaf.

Taxonomy and distribution

It was described by Carl Linnaeus in the 1767 12th edition of ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

'' as ''Papilio cydippe''. He had previously described a European species, now classified as '' Argynnis'', under that name in ''

Fauna Svecica ''Fauna Svecica'' ("Fauna of Sweden", ed. 1, Stockholm, 1746; ed. 2 Stockholm, 1761) was written by Swedish botanist, physician, zoologist and naturalist Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ...

''. ''

Centuria Insectorum The first page of ''Centuria Insectorum'', as included in ''Amoenitates Academicæ'' ' (Latin, "one hundred insects") is a 1763 taxonomic work by Carl Linnaeus, and defended as a thesis by Boas Johansson; which of the two men should for taxonomi ...

''. Although the

Principle of Priority 270px, '' valid name. Priority is a fundamental principle of modern botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature. Essentially, it is the principle of recognising the first valid application of a name to a plant or animal. There are two asp ...

in zoological nomenclature would normally require the oldest name to be used, the 1767 name has been conserved against any earlier homonyms. Linnaeus quoted a

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

of India, but this has been interpreted as a reference to Indonesia, and the type locality is now

Ambon Ambon may refer to: Places * Ambon Island, an island in Indonesia ** Ambon, Maluku, a city on Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province ** Governorate of Ambon, a colony of the Dutch East India Company from 1605 to 1796 * Ambon, Morbihan, a co ...

. A number of subspecies are recognised, including ''C. c. cydippe'' (Linnaeus, 1767) and ''C. c. chrysippe'' (Fabricius, 1775). ''C. c. cydippe'' occurs in the Aru Islands, the Kai Islands and Maluku in Indonesia, and on New Guinea, both in the Indonesian Irian Jaya and in Papua New Guinea. ''C. c. chrysippe'' was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in his '' Systema Entomologiae'' in 1775, as ''Papilio chrysippe'', with a type locality of Cooktown, Queensland. The subspecies is endemic to Queensland, where it is found in the northern

Gulf Country The Gulf Country is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also called the Gulf Savannah. It ...

and north-east coastal region. All recognised subspecies listed alphabetically: * ''C. c. alkmene'' Fruhstorfer, 1902 (D'Etrecasteaux Archipelago) * ''C. c. antoni'' Kawai, 1996 (Tanimbar Island) * ''C. c. bernsteini'' C. & R. Felder,

867 __NOTOC__ Year 867 (Roman numerals, DCCCLXVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * September 23 – Emperor Michael III is murde ...

/small> (Bachan, Halmahera, Morotai) * ''C. c. cenchrites'' Fruhstorfer, 1909 (New Guinea) * ''C. c. chrysippe'' (Fabricius, 1775) (Cape York) * ''C. c. cleanthis'' Fruhstorfer, 1902 (Trobriand Islands) * ''C. c. cydalima'' C. & R. Felder,

/small> (Aru, Goram) * ''C. c. cydippe'' (Linnaeus, 1767) (Serang, Ambon, Saparua) * ''C. c. cyrene'' Wallace, 1869 (Waigeu) * ''C. c. damasippe'' C. & R. Felder,

/small> (New Guinea) * ''C. c. doxata'' Fruhstorfer, 1913 (Goodenough Island) * ''C. c. insulata'' Butler, 1873 (Kai Island) * ''C. c. imperialis'' Butler, 1876 (Cape York to Townsville) * ''C. c. iphigenia'' Fruhstorfer, 1901 (Buru) * ''C. c. lucina'' Fruhstorfer, 1905 (Jobi) * ''C. c. mysolensis'' Fruhstorfer, 1913 (Mysol Island) * ''C. c. obiana'' Fruhstorfer, 1903 (Obi) * ''C. c. sangira'' Fruhstorfer, 1906 (Sangihe?, Sangira Island) * ''C. c. salwattensis'' Fruhstorfer, 1913 (Salwtti) * ''C. c. schoutensis'' Joicey & Noakes, 1915 (Biak) * ''C. c. woodlarkiana'' Fruhstorfer, 1902 (Woodlark Island)

References

External links

''Cethosia cydippe''
Tree of Life Web Project {{Taxonbar, from=Q1057689 Acraeini Butterflies described in 1767 Butterflies of Australia Butterflies of Asia Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus