Parnassian quandary

Kenelm Philip fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu
Thu Aug 3 22:16:18 EDT 2000


> Could it be that NABA lists Parnassius phoebus instead?

The NABA checklist (1995) lists three species of _Parnassius_ for North
America: _eversmanni_, _clodius_, and _phoebus_. For a number of years
(see the MONA (Hodges et al) Check List, or the Miller/Brown Catalogue)
_smintheus_ has been regarded as a subspecies of _phoebus_. Recently
(see 'The Systematics of Western North American Butterflies', pp. 717-
721) Shepard and Manley have split _phoebus_ into three full species:
_phoebus_, _behrii_, and _smintheus_. 'The Butterflies of Canada' adopts
this scheme. _P. phoebus_ is now restricted to Alaska, and the southern
Ogilvie Mts. in the Yukon. All other North American members of the group,
except for _behrii_ in California, are _smintheus_. I do not know if this
classification is universally accepted in North America now.

							Ken Philip
fnkwp at uaf.edu




More information about the Leps-l mailing list