This week's butterfly is another rare one about which little information is available. A Google search shows more museum specimens, and trade in museum specimens, than information about Atrophaneura kuehni, Kuehn's Batwing, in its habitat on Sulawesi (Celebes) island. Most of what's been written about this butterfly was written by Eduard von Honrath, in German, in 1889.
The drawings below, from Honrath's book, show some specimens of A. kuehni and other butterflies. The big one at the top (actually two separate butterflies) and the slightly smaller one in the middle left of the page are kuehni.
This map gives some idea why the butterfly has not been easy to study.
It's a large butterfly, usually looking black, gray, or brown, males usually darker than females. There is one big red or pink patch on each hind wing. Red or pink may also be visible on the tail end. Wing venation fits the Swallowtail pattern, and wing veins may stand out in dark brown, gray, or black against a buff or light gray background, but the hind wings don't actually have tails.
Since scientists don't know for sure how rare A. kuehni may be, most legitimate museums don't try to display a specimen. Less legitimate web sites do, however, seem to be doing a brisk trade in specimens for less legitimate collectors. This web site repeats: If you spend time observing butterflies, you will know on what day you can expect to find a lot of dead bodies. Butterflies are small animals with short lives. For several species, ten days after the young fresh butterflies emerge from their cocoons, you can start looking for bodies that have died of old age. Their tiny hearts fibrillate rather than beat for only so long. Still, we should never pay real money for dead butterflies. If they are noticeably less common than dirt, we don't want to encourage "collectors" to kill butterflies before their time.
I don't really read German. I used Google Translate to decipher Honrath's description: "[Male] Oberseite schwarz mit stahlblauem Schiller. Den Innenrand der Htfl. bildet eine grosse, mehrfach zusammengefaltete Klappe, die entfaltet auf der Oberseite eine weissliche Farbe zeigt.
Auf der Unterseite geht die schwarze Grundfarbe mehr in einen bräunlichen Ton über, und ist der Schiller matter. Besonders charakteristisch ist ein auf den Htfln. zwischen Diskoidalzelle und dem Aussenrand in Zellen la, 2, 3 und 4 stehender zusammen- hängender carminrother Flecken."
(Upper side black with steel blue iridescence. The inner edge of the hind wing forms a large, multiply folded flap, which, when unfolded, shows a whitish color on the upper side.
On the underside, the black base color turns more into a brownish tone and the iridescence is duller. Particularly characteristic is one (big spot on the hind wings) between the discoidal cell and the outer edge in cells 1a, 2, 3, and 4, of connected carmine-red spots.)
[Female] Grundfarbe braun mit dunkel rehfarbenem Glanze. Auf den Vdfin. nimmt dieselbe, namentlich zwischen dem Aussenrande und der Diskoidalzelle, einen weisslichen, in röthlich Grau spielenden Ton an, aus welchem die braunen Zellenfalten und die schwarzen Adern um so kräftiger hervortreten. Die mattere Unterseite zeigt dieselbe Erscheinung. Der charakteristische rothe Flecken auf den Htfln. greift noch etwas in Zelle 5 hinüber. ;
Körper‘ schwarz, nur an der Brust unmittelbar am Ansatz der Htfl., am Anfang des Hinterleibs dicht unter der Wurzel der Ht!fl. und an der Hinterleibsspitze roth sgefleckt bzw. behaart; Fühler und Palpen schwarz. Dadurch allein schon unterscheidet sich diese neue Art von allen andern der Papilio Astorion-Gruppe, wozu sie sonst unzweifelhaft gehört.
(Ground color brown with dark fawn luster. On the upper side especially between the outer edge and the discoidal cell it assumes a whitish tone playing ito reddish gray, from which the brown cell folds and the black veins stand out all the more strongly. The matte underside shows the same appearance. The characteristic red patch reaches into cell 5.
Body black; only on the chest directly at the base of the hind wings, at the beginning of the abdomen just below the root of the hind wings, and at the tip of the abdomen, red-spotted or haired. Antennae and legs black. This alone distinguishes this new species from all others in the Papilio Astorion group, to which it undoubtedly belongs."
All of this makes A. kuehni sound similar to A. dixoni despite some small consistent differences, but scientists have generally agreed that the differences make these two distinct species. The wingspan is 9 to 10 cm, approximately 4 inches. Dixoni is a little bigger than that. We considered the information about dixoni, which is not well known either, at https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2023/01/butterfly-of-week-atrophaneura-dixoni.html .
Honrath said he was naming the species after Heinrich Kuhn of Dresden, who caught specimens "at great risk."
The Swallowtail & Birdwing Butterfly Trust now claims this species requires conservation and monitoring just because it is so little known.
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