Parnassius staudingeri

Parnassius staudingeri
	Subspecies Karakoram banded Apollo
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Genus:	Parnassius
Species:	P. staudingeri
Binomial name
	Parnassius staudingeri; A. Bang-Haas, 1882
Synonyms
	Parnassius hunza Grum-Grshimailo, 1888;

Parnassius staudingeri is a high-altitude butterfly which is found over a vast area - Pamirs, Altay Mountains, Hindu Kush, Karakorum and west Kuen-Lun.

It is a member of the genus Parnassius of the swallowtail family, Papilionidae.

A notable subspecies is the Karakoram banded Apollo (P. s. hunza).

Description

The ground colour of the main form is purer and more extended white than in Parnassius delphius, bands of forewing rather sharply defined, but narrow, no black shading on disc in male, hindmarginal spot present; hindwing with narrow grey margin, a submarginal band of halfmoons, two rather large blackish anal spots, small ocelli, filled in with deep red. Female with stronger markings, disc of forewing dusted with black, submarginal band broader, ocelli of hindwing larger, the margin of hindwing more strongly blackened. From Sarafshan (Samarkand), Alai and Transalai mountains.^[1]

References

^ Stichel in Seitz, 1906 (Parnassius). Die Groß-Schmetterlinge der Erde. Die Groß-Schmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes. Die palaearktischen Tagfalter, Stuttgart.

Weiss, J.-C. 1992. The Parnassiinae of the World. Part 2. Sciences Nat, Venette; 87 pp.
Chou, I. (ed) 1994. Monographia Rhopalocerorum Sinensium (Monograph of Chinese Butterflies). Henan Scientific and Technological Publishing House, Zhengzhou.(in Chinese)