On the status of Papilio sjoestedti Aurivillius, 1908, the “Kilimanjaro swallowtail” (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae)

Abstract

The status of four nominal taxa of Afrotropical Papilionidae, Papilio fülleborni Karsch, 1900, Papilio fülleborni rydoni Kielland, 1987, Papilio sjöstedti Aurivillius, 1908, and Papilio sjöstedti var. atavus Le Cerf, 1912, is discussed. Formal taxonomic information is given in an appendix. Basedon evidence from the male and female wing patterns and male genitalia, and from their geographical distributions, it is concluded that they are best considered to represent the two species originally established. Thus Papilio sjoestedti is bitypic, including the nominotypical subspecies and P. s. atavus. Papilio fuelleborni is more problematic; the two nominal taxa may represent polymorphic forms of the same taxon, but in the absence of conclusive evidence, we maintain the status quo and treat them as subspecies: P. f. fuelleborni and P. f. rydoni. Princeps fuelleborni neocesa Kemal and Koçak, 2005, is formally synonymized with Papilio sjoestedti atavus Le Cerf as an unnecessary replacement name. The validity of the spelling Papilio sjoestedti is discussed and affirmed.

Keywords:

• Afrotropical
• butterflies
• taxonomy
• morphology
• distribution

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the founder of ABRI, Steve Collins, for sending us the digital images of the relevant part of that collection. They were of great help in our deliberations. We thank that great stalwart of African butterflies, Arthur Rydon, for donating further specimens from his collection to the BMNH. Rob Young kindly took time out of his busy schedule to take the high quality digital photographs of the butterflies illustrated.