Battus polydamas antiquus
Battus polydamas antiquus is an extinct subspecies of the Polydamas swallowtail within the butterfly family Papilionidae. It is only known by a drawing from 1770 by British entomologist Dru Drury. It was endemic to Antigua.
| Battus polydamas antiquus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Male | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Papilionidae |
| Genus: | Battus |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | †B. p. antiquus |
| Trinomial name | |
| †Battus polydamas antiquus (Rothschild & Jordan, 1906) | |
Taxonomy
There are over 20 Battus polydamas subspecies. While many are considered rare, B. p. antiquus is the only subspecies currently listed as extinct. Dru Drury received his butterflies from a variety of sources during a period of history when cartography was not precise. There exists, to those who have examined his three-volume work Illustrations of Natural History, a plethora of errors in his taxonomy. Such errors may indicate that B. p. antiquus never existed at all, though this is disputed.
Description
Drury's illustration depicts a male. The ground color of the forewings and hindwings is black. The upperside of the forewings consists of a row of eight green spots. The upper four spots are small. The sixth one is the biggest. The row of spots on the hindwing is narrower.
References
- Grice, H., Hall, P., Mega, N., Nunez-Bustos, E. & Freitas, A.V.L. 2018. Battus polydamas. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T110520503A110520514. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T110520503A110520514.en. Accessed on 27 June 2023.
- Walter Rothschild & Karl Jordan (1906): A Revision of the American Papilios. In: Novitates Zoologicae Volume 13: p 523
- F. Martin Brown and Bernard Heineman, Jamaica and its Butterflies (E. W. Classey, London 1972)
- Smart, Paul (1976). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Butterfly World in Color. London, Salamander: Encyclopedie des papillons. Lausanne, Elsevier Sequoia (French language edition) ISBN 9780948427046 ISBN 0600313816 page 159 fig. 19 as B. archidamas Bsdv., underside (Chile), fig. 17 as polydamas (Mexico)