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Scientific name
Troides magellanus (Felder & Felder, 1862)
=Troides magellanus sonani Matsumura, 1931, nom. Nud.
=Troides magellanus sonani Matsumura, 1932
=Troides magellanus sonani Matsumura, 1931, nom. Nud.
=Troides magellanus sonani Matsumura, 1932
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Chinese name 珠光鳳蝶、珠光黃裳鳳蝶、蘭嶼翼鳳蝶、螢光裳鳳蝶
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English name
Magellan's Iridescent Birdwing |
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Classification 鳳蝶科(Papilionidae)，鳳蝶亞科(Papilioninae)，裳鳳蝶族(Troidini)
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Diagnosis
Large-sized swallowtail species, wingspan of male about
15-20 cm, 20-25 cm in female. Head black; thorax black
with a red ring on the anterior margin of prothorax; abdomen
grayish yellow or dark brown in male but paler in female.
Wing bases of both sexes ringed red; forewings elongated
with outer margin straight in male, broader in female;
out margin of hindwings of male less undulate than female;
ground colour in male black, each of veins tinged yellowish
gray scales, hindwing covered by golden yellow scales
with pearly sheen and black patches along termen; tornus
in male slightly folded and with long androconial hairs
situated inside; ground colour of forewings in female
similar to female, but more developed in grayish white
scales; hindwing of female having double rows of black
patches. |
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Distribution
In Taiwan, this species is restricted to Orchid Island
(=Lanyu [in Mandarin] or Kotosho [in Japanese]) with few
occasional records from Green Island (=Lutao [in Mandarin]
or Kwashoto[in Japanese]). The whole species ranges throughout
the whole Philippine Archipelago and extends to Orchid
Island. |
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Habitat and Ecology
This species could be seen throughout the year, especially
from March to April and September to October. Eggs are
spherical, yellow, laid singly on the lower surface of
host leaves. The larvae only feed on Aristolochia zollingeriana
Miq. (Hamano, 1987; Lee, 1990; Lin, 1994, Cheng et al.,
1996). The ground colour is mainly dark red with a white
ring on the posterior part of the third abdominal segment.
The white band is broader dorsally but attenuate ventrally.
Another white patch is present along the lateral to the
dorsal surface of the fourth abdominal segment. The final
star larva turns to yellowish brown with obscure black
dots. The early instars mainly feed on leaves, however,
the mature instar may crunch on mature vine and cause
the decline of the host. Pupation occurs on the vine or
around the host. The hostplant name of this species in
Lanyu had ever been cited as Aristolochia tagala Champ
in some literature (eg. Chen, 1987, 1988). Hou (1983)
stated that all the records of A. tagala from the Ryukyus
and Lanyu were based on misidentifications of A. zollingeriana,
which is thought conspecific to Aristolochia kankaoensis
Sasaki. This treatment has been followed by the Flora
of Taiwan (second edition) though Matsuka (2001) doubted
if the real A. zollingeriana from Java is conspecific
to A. kankaoensis from Taiwan. For further information
of this species see Bai & Wang (1998) |
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Threats and Conservation Status
This species in Orchid Island is considered the northernmost
peripheral population in the whole species, and has high
significance in conservation biology and biogeography.
This species had ever been quite common, but the population
size rapidly declined by commercial trade and deforestation
(Chen, 1987, 1988). However, now it is still considerably
threatened by illegal collecting, unstopped habitat loss
and increasing competition for the same niche from a smaller
Aristolochia-feeding species, Pachliopta aristolochiae
interpositus (Fruhstorfer, 1901). A long-term ecological
and conservational survey has been conducted by the Taiwan
Endemic Species Research Institute for years (Fang et
al., 1997, 1998, 1999). |
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Remarks
Three subspecies of this species had ever been proposed,
i.e. megallenus Felder & Felder, 1862 (most Philippine
Islands), sonani Matsumura, 1932 (Orchid Island) and apoensis
Okano & Ohkura, 1978 (Mindanao). Though Tsukada＆Nishiyama
(1982) regarded these three as distinct subspecies, Haugum
& Low (1986) only recognized two of them, sonani and
megallenus. The subspecific name sonani has been used
in many references (e.g. Zeuner, 1942; Okano & Ohkura,
1978), but in this book, we follow the Haugum & Low's
(1986) treatment. They stated that sonani Matsumura, 1931
is an unavailable name; sonani Matsumura, 1932 is an available
name but should be synonymized with megallenus. In addition,
having examined a long series of specimens from major
islands of the Philippines, we do not see any distinct
difference among them. D'Abrara (1992) had ever considered
the Taiwanese population was not native but commercially
introduced. This viewpoint, however, was probably due
to very misleading information from insect dealers |
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