Papilio polymnestor, CRAMER, 1775

Chainey, John E., 2005, The species of Papilionidae and Pieridae (Lepidoptera) described by Cramer and Stoll and their putative type material in the Natural History Museum in London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 145 (3), pp. 283-337 : 308

POLYMNESTOR CRAMER, 1775

Pap[ilio] Eq[ues] Achiv[us] polymnestor Cramer, 1775: 83 , 154, pl.53, figs A, B [original plate 60, figs A, A]. ‘Côte de Coromandel’ [= south-eastern India] (Baron Rengers).

Papilio Eques Trojanus polymnestor, Stoll, 1782b: 2 [No. 14].

Material examined. No potential Cramer specimens located.

Remarks. This could be one of the species sent to Rengers by Drury (see above). The annotated BMNH copy of the sale catalogue of Drury’s collection ( Donovan, 1805) shows that a specimen of Papilio polymnestor was sold to Macleay as part of a lot of six specimens. The Macleay collection is now in Sydney, Australia. Although Cramer would not have seen this specimen (Drury apparently sent only duplicates to Rengers and did not expect them to be returned), it could well have been from the same source as the type material.

Current status. Valid species in Papilio (Menelaides) ( Häuser et al., 2003) .