Byasa dasarada

Great Windmill
Male above and female below
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Genus: Byasa
Species: B. dasarada
Binomial name
Byasa dasarada[1]
(Moore, 1857)[1]
Subspecies

5; see text

Synonyms
  • Atrophaneura dasarada (Moore, 1857)
  • Papilio dasarada Moore, 1857

The Great Windmill (Byasa dasarada) is a butterfly found in India that belongs to the Windmills genus, Byasa, comprising tailed black swallowtail butterflies with white spots and red submarginal crescents.

Range and Status

Northern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, south-eastern China (including Hainan island (Guangdong province)).

The Great Windmill is not rare or threatened.

Subspecies

Byasa dasarada at Samsing in Darjeeling district, West Bengal, India.

Five subspecies. The following occur in the Indian neighbourhood :-

Description

Byasa dasarada dasarada at Samsing in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, India.

The butterfly is considered to be beautiful in appearance.

Habits

The Great Windmill is a woodland butterfly. It can often be spotted slowly and gracefully flying across clearings. It flies between 4,000 to 9,000 feet in the spring and summer. Its habits resemble those of the Common Windmill.

Life cycle

Egg

Not described.

Larva

The ground colour of the larva varies in shades of grey and has a pattern of black lines. It has an orange osmeterium. The larva has a large number of tubercles arranged in two lateral and two sub-dorsal rows. The third and fourth segments have an additional pair of tubercles. The tubercles all have red tips, except those on the seventh and eighth segments which are almost entirely dirty white and the eleventh segment which has the same colour on just the tips of the tubercles.

Pupa

Pupa is yellow-green in colour with blue bands. It has an orange protuberance on its back. It is attached to its support by a black body and anal pad. The pupa emits a squeak when touched.

Food plant

Gallery

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Häuser, Christoph L.; de Jong, Rienk; Lamas, Gerardo; Robbins, Robert K.; Smith, Campbell; Vane-Wright, Richard I. (28 July 2005). "Papilionidae – revised GloBIS/GART species checklist (2nd draft)". Entomological Data Information System. Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Germany. Retrieved 21 June 2013.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Atrophaneura dasarada.


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