Kahli

Kenelm Philip fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu
Fri Mar 12 22:06:02 EST 1999


                                                                                
> Does anyone know if the Kahli swallowtail is a seperate species or a
> subspecies of P. polyxenes?                                           

It depends which source you consult--and your preference for lumping or
splitting. The Hodges catologue (MONA) and the Miller/Brown catalogue
list _kahli_ as a full species. Scott (B'flies of NA) and Tyler/Brown/
Wison (Swallowtail B'flies of the Americas) list it as a ssp. of _poli-
xenes_, and Scott mentions hybridization between _machaon_ and _polixenes_
in the past as being responsible for the subspecies. Layberry, Hall, and
Lafontaine (B'flies of Canada) state unequivocally that _kahli_ is a hybrid
between _machaon_ and _polixenes_, with reference to Klassen et al, 1989.
That turns out to be 'The Butterflies of Manitoba, by Klassen, Westwood,
Preston, and McKillop (1989). They list _P. kahli_ as a species, and
have the following to say:

	"The status of _Papilio kahli_ is in debate. Some authors consider
the Kahli Swallowtail to be a subspecies of the Black Swallowtail. Sperling
(1987) stated that the Kahli Swallowtail consists of an unstable breeding
population originating from a _Papilio polyxenes_/_Papilio machaon_ cross,
freely interbreeding with its originators."

	One should presumably read Sperling ('Evolution of _Papilio machaon_
species group in western Canada'. Quaestiones Entomologicae 23: 198-315,
1987) before arriving at any conclusions about all this.

							Ken Philip
fnkwp at uaf.edu



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