The Japanese luehdorfia (''Luehdorfia japonica'') is a species of

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

in the subfamily

Parnassiinae The Parnassiinae or snow Apollos are a subfamily of the swallowtail butterfly family, Papilionidae. The subfamily includes about 50 medium-sized, white or yellow species. The snow Apollos are high-altitude butterflies and are distributed across ...

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 larges ...

. It is found only in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It was discovered by

Yasushi Nawa was a Japanese entomologist from Gifu Prefecture. Personal history Nawa was born in the Motosu District of Gifu Prefecture (present day city of Mizuho) and had a strong affinity to bugs even in his youth. In 1878, he entered into the Gifu ...

in Japan's

Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...

in 1883.''Gifu City Walking Map''. Gifu Lively City Public Corporation, 2007. It is also known as the ''Luehdorfia japonica'' is

univoltine Voltinism is a term used in biology to indicate the number of broods or generations of an organism in a year. The term is most often applied to insects, and is particularly in use in sericulture, where silkworm varieties vary in their voltinism. ...

with adult emergence in early spring. The larval host plants are wild gingers species of the genus ''

Asarum ''Asarum'' is a genus of plants in the birthwort family Aristolochiaceae, commonly known as wild ginger. ''Asarum'' is the genitive plural of the Latin ''āsa'' (an alternate form of ''āra'') meaning altar or sanctuary. Description ''Asarum' ...

''. Female butterflies lay eggs in clusters on the fresh growth of the host plant, and the hatched larvae feed on the leaf in groups during the early

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...

stages.Matsumoto, K, Population change and immature mortality process of Luehdorfia japonica (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) feeding on an unusual host plant, Asarum caulescens Maxim. (Aristolochiaceae). Entomological Science (2003) 6,143–149 Japanese entomologists have intensively studied the

phylogeography Phylogeography is the study of the historical processes that may be responsible for the past to present geographic distributions of genealogical lineages. This is accomplished by considering the geographic distribution of individuals in light of ge ...

population dynamics Population dynamics is the type of mathematics used to model and study the size and age composition of populations as dynamical systems. History Population dynamics has traditionally been the dominant branch of mathematical biology, which has ...

and other aspects of the biology of ''Luehdorfia japonica'' including the role of the sphragis. This is a post-copulatory plug, attached to the abdomen of the female after copulation preventing her from mating again. It is found in other Parnassinae and some Acraeini.

Etymology

The genus name is for Friedrich August Lühdorf, a Bremen trader who made a commercial expedition to Japan in 1854.

Types

Syntypes 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 ...

of ''japonica japonica'' are deposited in

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

.Types of ''japonica omikron'' Bryk, 1932 are held by

Museum für Naturkunde The Natural History Museum (german: Museum für Naturkunde) is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major muse ...

in Berlin. Images of these types can be seen a
The Global Butterfly Information System

Status

''Luehdorfia japonica'' is becoming more scarce as its previously lightly managed open woodland habitats are destroyed in favour of agriculture or intensive forestry. It is restricted to

Honshu Island , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island sep ...

References

Other sources

* *Hara, S., Ochiai, H., 1980. On a hybrid between male ''Luehdorfia japonica'' and female ''L. puziloi inexpecta''. ''Tyô to Ga'' 31: 97-101. *Li, C.Y., 1987. ''Illustrations of Butterflies in Taiwan''. T’ai-pei shih: T’ai-wan sheng li po wu kuan. Taipei, China. *Makita, H., Shinkawa, T., Kazumasa, O., Kondo, A., Nakazawa, T., 2000. Author abstract Phylogeny of ''Luehdorfia'' butterflies inferred from mitochondrial ND5 gene sequences. ''Entomological Science'' 3: 321-329.The phylogeny of the genus Luehdorfia (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae) in the East Asia was examined by a molecular approach. To elucidate the phylogenetic relationships among four species of the genus, partial nucleotide sequences (785 base pairs) of the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 (ND5) gene were compared. The results indicated that Luehdorfia japonica diverged initially from the ancestral stock of the genus Luehdorfia, and that then the ancestral stock successively yielded L. chinensis. L. longicaudata and L. puziloi. These findings suggest that L. japonica might immigrate first among the Luehdorfia butterfiies into the area of the current Japanese Archipelago after the intrusion of Asarum as the food plant of L. japonica. The phylogeny of the genus Luehdorfia is discussed. *Matsumoto, K., 1984. Population dynamics of ''Luehdorfia japonica'' Leech (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). I. a preliminary study on the adult population. ''Researches on Population Ecology'' 26: 1-12. *Matsumoto, K., 1987. Mating patterns of a sphragis-bearing butterfly, ''Luehdorfia japonica'' Leech (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae), with descriptions of mating behavior. ''Researches on Population Ecology'' 29: 97-110. *Matsumoto, K., 1989. Effects of aggregation on the survival and development on different host plants in a papilionid butterfly, ''Luehdorfia japonica'' Leech. ''Jpn. J. ent.'' 57: 853-860. *Matsumoto, K., 1990. Population dynamics of Luehdorfia japonica Leech (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). II. Patterns of mortality in immatures in relation to egg cluster size. ''Researches on Population Ecology'' 32: 173-188. *Shirôzu, T., Hara, A., 1973. ''Early stages of Japanese butterflies in colour''. Vol. I. Osaka, Hoikusha. *Tsubaki, Y., Matsumoto, K., 1998. Fluctuating asymmetry and male mating success in a sphragis bearing butterfly ''Luehdorfia japonica'' (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). ''Journal of Insect Behaviour'' 11: 571-582.

External links

* Luehdorfia Taxa named by John Henry Leech Butterflies described in 1889 Butterflies of Japan Butterflies of Asia Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{papilionidae-stub