Parnassius phoebus, known as the Phoebus Apollo or small Apollo, is a butterfly species of the swallowtail butterfly family, Papilionidae, found in the Palearctic and North America.

From Jacob Hübner's Das kleine Schmetterlingsbuch

P. phoebus is found in the Alps, Urals, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Alaska and Canada south into the northern United States.

Description

Male: the costal spots of forewing usually without red, the anterior one sometimes with white pupil; submarginal band faint and abbreviated or interrupted; no spot at hind margin; hindwing with red ocelli which are usually small, and sometimes with a submarginal row of feebly marked black spots; the veins often marked with well-defined elongate black punctures.

Female: with better defined and more extended markings; vitreous margin of forewing separated from the submarginal band by large white uniform spots; the second costal spots often pupilled red, connected with one another by black scaling, on disc sometimes blackish shadows; on hindwing a greyish vitreous marginal band, distinct submarginal half-moons, which are contiguous, forming a band, two larger red ocelli, the posterior one occasionally with white pupil; anal spots sometimes intensified and one of them filled in with red.

  • Male
  • Male, bottom
  • Female
  • Female, bottom

Habitat

Mountains at 1,600 to 2,800 meters, in particular between 1,800 and 2,200 meters above sea level, in humid damp and wet places such as edges of mountain streams and near springs and fresh seepages and in valleys (Schneetälchen) according to the preferences of its caterpillar food plant.

Larval foods

Subspecies

P. phoebus has the following subspecies:

Parnassius phoebus alpestris Verity, 1911 Parnassius phoebus var. anna Stichel, 1907 Parnassius phoebus aktashicus Parnassius phoebus alaskensis Eisner, 1956 Parnassius phoebus altaica Ménétriés, 1859 Parnassius phoebus amalthea Bryk & Eisner, 1935 Parnassius phoebus ampliusmaculata Bryk, 1929 Parnassius phoebus apricatus Stichel, 1906 Parnassius phoebus var. aristion Fruhstorfer, 1923 Parnassius phoebus var. astriotes Fruhstorfer, 1923 Parnassius phoebus badmaevi Martynenko & Gluschenko, 2001 Parnassius phoebus bajangolus Yakovlev, 2006 Parnassius phoebus basimaculata Bryk & Eisner, 1935 Parnassius phoebus biexcelsior Bryk & Eisner, 1935 Parnassius phoebus var. blachieri Fruhstorfer, 1921 Parnassius phoebus bulawskii Parnassius phoebus catullius Fruhstorfer, 1923 Parnassius phoebus cardinalis Oberthür, 1891 Parnassius phoebus var. casta Stichel, 1907 Parnassius phoebus cerenus Martin, 1922 Parnassius phoebus chingizid Yakovlev, 2006 Parnassius phoebus var. confederationis Fruhstorfer, 1921 Parnassius phoebus corybas Fischer De Waldheim, 1836 Parnassius phoebus costalinigroocellata Bryk & Eisner, 1935 Parnassius phoebus crocedominensis Nardelli & Sala, 1986 Parnassius phoebus cubitalis Bryk & Eisner 1937 Parnassius phoebus var. cutullius Fruhstorfer, 1923 Parnassius phoebus dakotaensis Bryk & Eisner, 1935 Parnassius phoebus discocircumcincta Eisner 1955 Parnassius phoebus eisneri Bryk, 1928 Parnassius phoebus elias Bryk, 1934 Parnassius phoebus ernaeides Bryk & Eisner, 1937 Parnassius phoebus ernestinae Bryk & Eisner, 1935 Parnassius phoebus var. expectatus Fruhstorfer, 1921 Parnassius phoebus fermata Bryk, 1921 Parnassius phoebus festal Turati, 1932 Parnassius phoebus flavomaculata Moltrecht, 1933 Parnassius phoebus fortuna A Bang-Haas, 1912 Parnassius phoebus var. gulschenkoi Iwamoto, 1997 Parnassius phoebus gazelii Previel, 1936 Parnassius phoebus golovinus Holland, 1930 Parnassius phoebus grundi Bryk & Eisner, 1935 Parnassius phoebus guppyi Wyatt, 1971 Parnassius phoebus halasicus Huang & Murayama, 1992 Parnassius phoebus hansi Bryk, 1945 Parnassius phoebus hardwicki Kane, 1885 Parnassius phoebus hermador dos Passos, 1964 Parnassius phoebus hermadur Brown & Eff & Rotger, 1856 Parnassius phoebus var. hermiston Fruhstorfer, 1922 Parnassius phoebus herrichi Oberthür, 1891 Parnassius phoebus hollandi Bryk & Eisner, 1935 Parnassius phoebus intermedius Ménétriés,1849 Parnassius phoebus intermedioides Storace, 1951 Parnassius phoebus interpositus Herz, 1903 Parnassius phoebus kamtchatica Ménétries, 1886 Parnassius phoebus lessini Sala, 1996 Parnassius phoebus leonhardi Rühl ,1892 Parnassius phoebus leucostigma Austaut, 1912 Parnassius phoebus manitobaensis Bryk & Eisner, 1935 Parnassius phoebus mariae Bryk, 1912 Parnassius phoebus melanica Verity, 1911 Parnassius phoebus melanophorus Bryk, 1921 Parnassius phoebus mendicus Stichel ,1907 Parnassius phoebus minor Verity, 1907 Parnassius phoebus minusculus Bryk,1912 Parnassius phoebus montanulus Bryk & Eisner, 1931 Parnassius phoebus montanus Ehrmann, 1918 Parnassius phoebus muelleri Uffeln, 1920 Parnassius phoebus nanus Neumoegen, 1890 Parnassius phoebus nigerrimus Verity, 1907 Parnassius phoebus nigrescens Wheeler 1903 Parnassius phoebus nikolaii Asahi, Kohara, Kanda & Kawata, 1999 Parnassius phoebus nox Bryk & Eisner, 1935 Parnassius phoebus ocellata Verity, 1907 Parnassius phoebus ochotskensis Bryk & Eisner, 1931 Parnassius phoebus orbifer Bryk & Eisner, 1935 Parnassius phoebus var. palamedes Hemming, 1934 Parnassius phoebus paradisiacus Turati, 1932 Parnassius phoebus phoebus Parnassius phoebus pholus Barnes & Benjamin, 1926 Parnassius phoebus plurimaculata Nitsche, 1913 Parnassius phoebus polus Ehrmann, 1917 Parnassius phoebus pseudocorybas Verity, 1907 Parnassius phoebus quincunx Bryk ,1915 Parnassius phoebus reducta O. Bang-Haas, 1938 Parnassius phoebus rocky Grum-Grshimallo ,1890 Parnassius phoebus rotgeri Bang-Haas, 1938 Parnassius phoebus rubina Wyatt, 1961 Parnassius phoebus rueckbeili Deckert, 1909 Parnassius phoebus sacerdozi Fruhstorfer, 1906 Parnassius phoebus sauricus Lukhtanov, 1999 Parnassius phoebus savoieensis Eisner, 1957 Parnassius phoebus sedakovi Ménétriés, 1850 Parnassius phoebus var. serenus Fruhstorfer, 1921 Parnassius phoebus sordellus Fruhstorfer, 1923 Parnassius phoebus styriacus Fruhstorfer, 1851 Parnassius phoebus tersa Verity, 1947 Parnassius phoebus tessinorum Fruhstorfer, 1921 Parnassius phoebus tsenguun Churkin, 2003 Parnassius phoebus uralensis Ménétriés, 1859 Parnassius phoebus utahensis Rothschild, 1918 Parnassius phoebus vaschenkoi Hirschfeld & Schäffler, 2004 Parnassius phoebus velutus Martin, 1922 Parnassius phoebus verity Ehrmann, 1918 Parnassius phoebus veronicolus Martin, 1922 Parnassius phoebus werschoturovi O. Bang-Haas, 1934 Parnassius phoebus var. virginea Austaut, 1910 Parnassius phoebus vorbrodti Bryk & Eisner, 1943 Parnassius phoebus xanthus Ehrmann, 1918 Parnassius phoebus zamolodtschikovi A. Belik, 1996

Similar species

Parnassius smintheus, which is a closely related species found in North America, is sometimes classified as a subspecies of Parnassius phoebus. Some researchers also tend to split the North American populations of P. smintheus into two or three species, the northernmost of which are usually accepted as being part of P. phoebus, while the rest are considered to be P. smintheus, though sometimes P. behrii is treated as a species, rather than a subspecies of smintheus.

  • Bernard Turlin et Luc Manil, 2005 Étude synoptique et répartition mondiale des espèces du genre "Parnassius" Latreille 1804 ("Lepidoptera Papilionidae") Luc Manil, Paris.
  • Evans, Arthur V. (2007). Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America. Sterling Publishing Co. p. 260. ISBN 978-1-4027-4153-1.

External links

  • Media related to Parnassius phoebus at Wikimedia Commons
  • Data related to Parnassius phoebus at Wikispecies
  • Text, photographs.
  • 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine Tree line and Parnassius phoebus smintheus.