What a wonderful and spectacular
butterfly. It is the lesser know cousin of the great migratory butterfly,
The Monarch, D. plexippus. The current species is slightly smaller
but it is still very large, powerful and exotic. As a butterfly it is very
robust indeed. It has rather leathery wings and body which seem to protect
the butterfly from predators and the hot sun. In Europe it is found
sporadically around the southern Mediterranean and in N Africa it flies
just about anywhere but can only be found regularly around the Taroudannt
area of Morocco. I've found it in several places along the south of the
Moroccan High Atlas mountains, several places in Tunisia, Goa in India,
parts of Thailand and also tropical east coast of Australia. This must
make it one of the most widespread species in the world!
And across all this range there is almost no variation in the type form
at all. A correspondent has informed me that in some regions there are
forms which differ considerably from the type form, although the type form
is also present. East Africa is one such region. This seems to be
controlled by Mendelian genetics - why the effect is localised is not
clear.
