papilio vs. pterourus

[Pierre A Plauzoles]

Guy Van de Poel wrote:

> How far can this be taken ?
>
> >If they are close enough to produce hybrids they are congeneric. For
>
> A friend of mine once had a 'natural' mating (in a cage) between Aglais
> urticae and Inachis io (don't know which was the male/female).
> The eggs proved to be (partly ?) fertile, but the caterpillars eventually
> died and none of them pupated. Would you call this hybridisation too ?

Unsuccessful cross-breeding.  The way I understand it, for a genuiine cross
to be considered successful, it has to produce offspring that go through the
entire life cycle, egg to adult.

Pierre A Plauzoles
sphinxangelorum at bigfoot.com