Butterflies of the World, Part 20: Nymphalidae IX: Amathusiini of the Philippine Islands

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Language: English

With this contribution the authors present a further overview concerning butterflies of the Philippine Archipelago which is integrated into the outstanding series Butterflies of the World. The initial treatise of the Philippine series was dedicated to the Papilionidae family (Page & Treadaway 2003, 2004). Included in the introduction of this publication on Papilionidae are detailed discussions on the physio- and biogeography of the Philippines which proceed the systematic section. The initial aim of this treatise is to introduce the Amathusiini of the Philippine Archipelago in the form of an illustrated checklist. In doing so, the authors were able to illustrate all the valid species and subspecies except for two taxa for which, to date, they have not seen any specimens. For each species and subspecies they have provided one or more illustrations of butterflies from different islands for which they show, for both the upper- and underside, the specific arrangement of markings. Further, for the depiction of the male genitalia they have striven to provide examples from islands other than presented by Aoki et al. (1982).

In the text, for each genus they point out the formation of the secondary sex characteristics (scent organs) of the male example which also can be of special relevance for taxonomic studies. Here they have followed the positions taken by Corbet & Pendlebury (1978), which have also served as the source for the food plants of the larvae as far as known. Explanations concerning the habitat and habits are based upon the second author’s numerous expeditions to the Philippines. The authors name for each species and subspecies the insular geographical distribution within the Philippines and refer to the publication of Treadaway (1995) as well as to data arising from more recent material in the second author’s collection. In total, these data are an important instrument for biogeographical analyses. In conclusion, they provide for each taxon a short description of mostly the differential, diagnostic characteristics so that near relatives can be systematically and homogeneously separated from one another.

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