plato

9) Sp. plato (Wallace, 1865)⁵⁾ [♂] [♀: (Röber, 1891)⁴⁾]

INDONESIA [East Nusa Tenggara] West Timor (Kupang, Kotabes, Camplong, Soe);

EAST TIMOR (Dili, Raca Village).

(Vertical distribution)

Unknown.

(Episodes of discovery and original description)

Wallace himself described it as a new species in 1865, based on a single ♂ collected in Timor Island. In his paper, he wrote: “This is a very distinct species, though at first sight resembling several others. I obtained a single male specimen only.” This is clearly a new species. The ♀ was first described by Röber (1891) in comparison with the subspecies staudingeri of T. haliphron. The ♂ and ♀ specimens were collected by Kühn and Jacobsen, who visited the island for a year from the end of 1887 to collect material for the Royal Museum of Folklore in Berlin. The species name “plato” refers to the Greek philosopher Plato (=Platon) (427?-347? B.C.).

(Characteristics)

This unique species occurs only on Timor Is., where no other species of Troides is found. Because of its peculiarities, this species was considered an independent species when it was first discovered, but then has long since been thought as a local form of another T. criton or a subspecies of T. haliphron. However, this is now recognized as an independent species. The characteristics of this species can be listed as follows: the outer margins on FW and HW of both sexes are pronounced wavy; FW of ♂ is partially translucent; reddish hairs are absent from the lateral thorax; the genitalia of ♂ are unique; the ♀ is polymorphic.

(Patterns)

♂: FW shiny black, the basal third of the wing dark, the remainder translucent pale dark except for the wing periphery. The semi-translucent golden patches on HW are longitudinal, surrounded by the black basal area and the broad black margin, which are resemble T. criton.

♀: According to the degree of darkness of vein-stripes in FW, they are classified into two forms.

♀-f. nychonia (Jordan, 1908)¹⁾: Dark form of FW.

♀-f. chitonia (Jordan, 1908)¹⁾: Light form of FW.

(Variation)

♂-f. delormei (Le Moult, 1931)²⁾: [Aberrant FW pattern] Polar type of light form.

(Larval foodplant)

Aristolochia tagala.³⁾