page_title: Papilio prexaspes
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Papilio prexaspes / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Reise der Österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde in den Jahren 1857, 1858, 1859 unter den Befehlen des Commodore B. von Wüllerstorf-Urbair. (1864) Zoologischer Theil. 2. Band. Zweite Abteilung: Lepidoptera. Atlas.Tafel XV Papilio araspes (Papilio iswara araspes C. &amp; R. Felder, 1859); Papilio hipponous; Papilio hystaspes; Papilio prexaspes; Papilio sataspes
context_page_description: Papilio prexaspes, the blue Helen, is a swallowtail butterfly found in Southeast Asia. The race found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Papilio prexaspes andamanicus, is also known as the Andaman Helen.
context_section_description: The taxonomic description below is of race prexaspes and is taken from Charles Thomas Bingham's 1907 book (in the public domain):
  Closely resembles Papilio chaon, from which it differs as follows: smaller; fore wing more produced, its termen concave. 
  Male has the ground colour of the upperside of the wings a more brownish sooty-black. Hind wing with the upper discal white patch extended into interspace 4, most usually very slightly so, often represented only by a very small spot of white scaling, a white spot also above the tornal angle. Underside, fore wing: the internervular brownish-yellow streaks limited to the apical area of the wing. Hind wing: the upper discal patch extended to the dorsum in a series of three pure white not ochraceous-tinted spots, a more or less incomplete postdiscal series of lunules formed of diffuse blue scales, and the subterminal series of ochraceous lunules of a darker colour and smaller than in chaon; the rest as in chaon.
  The upperside of the wing in females has the ground-colour paler than in chaon. Fore wing with an ill-defined broad pale discal band perceptibly widened and becoming whitish opposite apex of cell. Hind wing: the extension into interspace 4 of the upper discal white patch more pronounced than in the male, the small white spot above the tornal angle followed in some specimens by a blue ill-defined lunule and an ochraceous spot. Underside, fore wing: the transverse discal hand white and much more prominent than on the upperside. Hind wing: the postdiscal series of blue lunules generally complete and well-marked: the rest as in the male.
caption: Original Felder figure
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