A New Subspecies of Parnassius cephalus GRUM-GRSHIMAILO from Nepal Himalaya (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae)

Abstract

Mr.Katsuhiko HORI captured many high-altitude butterflies between Mustang and Dhaulagiri in Central Nepal during the summer season 1981 and 1983. Among the butterflies, he found the new subspecies of Parnassius cephalus GR.-GR., described in this paper. The original description of Parnassius cephalus (by GRUM-GRSHIMAILO, 1891) is based on material from Amdo; to date, 11 further subspecies have been described. Although typically considered to be a Central Asian species it is in fact wide-ranging, being found from Kansu to Tsinghai, Szechwan, and South Tibet to East Kashmir, a similar distribution to Parnassius acco GRAY and Parnassius acdestis GR.-GR. Usually Central Asian Parnassius are more restricted. Subspecies occurring from Kansu to Tsinghai and Szechwan are very similar in wing shape and markings, but subsp. maharaja AVINOFF from Kashmir is superficially very different. Sometime it is treated as a good species, with the forewing-veins v11 (R_1) and v10 (R_2) consistently anastomosing, while the hindwing lacks both red and blue centred ocelli. from Tibet and North of Great Himalaya Range only two subspecies are known (subsp. rileyanus BRYK-Phuse La, near Rongchar Valley, 4800 m., Tibet, 1♀ Type; subsp. pythia H. ROTH-Tibu, west Gartok, 5000 m., Tibet, 1♀ Type). Besides these two subspecies, two specimens considered to represent rileyanus are know from Tibet, one from Lilung Valley and the other from Che La.