Usha, I have not yet reared or seen pictures of early stages of the Indian subspecies of Common Yellow Swallowtail (Papilio machaon). However, this caterpillar does look like that of Papilio machaon that I have seen elsewhere. BTW, three subspecies presumably occur in Sikkim: (1) Papilio machaon everesti Eimer, 1895, (2) Papilio machaon hookeri Gaonkar, 1999, and (3) Papilio machaon rinpoche Wyatt, 1959. Their exact elevational and longitudinal distributions in Sikkim and neighboring areas are not as well worked out as I would like.
The butterfly is Great Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina). The other caterpillars are of hawk moths, I don’t know which one. With best wishes, Krushnamegh. ------------------------------------------------- Krushnamegh Kunte, PhD Post-doctoral Research Fellow FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University 52 Oxford St., Northwest Lab Room 458.40-3 Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Ph: (617) 496-0078, Cell: (512) 577-1370, Fax: (617) 495-2196 Email: [email protected] Other emails: [email protected], [email protected] Personal website: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~kunte/index.htm Indian Foundation for Butterflies: http://ifoundbutterflies.org/ Google profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/krushnamegh ________________________________ From: usha lachungpa <[email protected]> Reply-To: butterflyindia <[email protected]> Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 00:21:27 -0500 To: butterflyindia <[email protected]>, Indianmoths <[email protected]> Subject: [ButterflyIndia] 2 butterfly and 1moth cats and a butterfly for id from Sikkim Dear All, please see attached and help id: Swallowtail Cat?: Krushnamegh's: is your caterpillar from Lachung of Yellow Swallowtail? 1. Labin Rai's caterpillar: which butterfly? 2. Labin Rai's caterpillar: which moth? 3. Labin Rai's: which butterfly? Thanks in advance, Usha -- Usha Ganguli-Lachungpa Sr. Research Officer (WL) Dept. of Forest, Env. & WL Mgmt. Government of Sikkim Deorali, Gangtok 737102 Tel/Fax:91-3592-280402; Cell:094340-25273 [email protected] -- Enjoy
