Archon (butterfly) explained

Archon is a genus of Palaearctic swallowtail butterflies in the subfamily Parnassiinae. Traditionally, only two species have been known: Archon apollinus and Archon apollinaris. Recent studies, however, have given specific status to a third taxon, Archon bostanchii.

Taxonomy

The genus consists of the following species:^{[1] [2]}

Larvae	Butterfly	Scientific name	Distribution
		Archon apollinaris - (Staudinger, 1892)^[3]	Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
		Archon apollinus - (Herbst, 1789)^[4]	Central and Eastern Europe and West Asia.
		Archon bostanchii - (de Freina & Naderi, 2003)^[5]	Iran.

Food plants

Species from this genus feed on Aristolochia species.

References

• Carbonell, F., 1991. Contribution à la connaissance du genre Archon Hübner 1822: Découverte de zones de sympatrie pour Archon apollinus (Herbst) et Archon apollinaris Staudinger (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Linneana Belgica 13: 3-12.
• Carbonell, F. and Michel, M., 2007. Une espèce jumelle méconnue du genre Archon Hübner, 1822 (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae). Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France 112 (2), 2007 : 141-150.
• Nazari, V. and Sperling, F.A.H., 2007. Mitochondrial DNA divergence and phylogeography in western Palaearctic Parnassiinae (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae): How many species are there? Insect Systematics & Evolution 38: 121-138. pdf

External links

• Tree of Life

Notes and References

1. http://www.uoguelph.ca/~vnazari/Nazari_et_al_2006_MP_E.pdf Nazari, V., Zakharov, E.V., and Sperling, F.A.H., 2007. Phylogeny, historical biogeography, and taxonomic ranking of Parnassiinae (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae) based on morphology and seven genes. Molecular phylogenetics and Evolution, 42: 131-156
2. http://www.catalogueoflife.org/browse_taxa.php?path=0,1,134,311,681,738,740,24129&selected_taxon=24129 Catalogue of Life:2009; Geraadpleegd op 20-11-2009
3. Staudinger, O. (1892) Neue Arten und Varietäten von Lepidopteren des paläarktischen Faunengebiets. Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift herausgegeben von der Gesellschaft Iris zu Dresden 4 (2): 224-339; pl. 3 [partim].
4. Herbst, J. F. W. (1798) Band 9. Schmetterlinge. Pauli, Berlin.
5. de Freina J. J. & Naderi A. (2004). Beschreibung einer neuen Unterart von Archon apollinaris (Staudinger, [1892]) aus dem südwestlichen Zentral-Zagros, bostanchii subspec. nov., mit ergänzenden Angaben zur Gesamtverbreitung der Art (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Atalanta, 34 (3/4) :429-434.