helena

Troides helena is the earliest known species, and the nominotypical subspecies was designated as a model species of the Genus Troides by Scudder (1819). Its distribution ranges widely from north-east India, covering all of south-east Asia, through south-west China east to Sulawesi. This subspecies shares some overlaps in distribution with ssp. oblongomaculatus, which belongs to the same species-group and occurs mainly in Maluku Islands and New Guinea, on Sulawesi Is., but they segregate from each other. Because of its wide distribution area, it has the largest number of subspecies among genus Troides, with 24 subspecies.

(Distribution) [DCD 31]

Nepal, Bhutan, N. India (Sikkim, Bengal, Assam, Northeastern Provinces), S.W. China, Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand), Malay Peninsula, Indonesia (Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi).

(Vertical distribution)

0 – 1, 000 m. a. s. l. (3,000 m in Nepal)

(Spotted pattern)

♂: FW is glossy black, with faint grayish-white vein-stripes in some subspecies. HW is entirely semi-translucent golden patch, and the basal and surrounding areas are trimmed in black. Black marginal projections are large. Reddish hair tufts present on the neck and the lateral thorax. The upper surface of abdomen is blackish brown, while the undersurface is bright yellow.

♀: The wing shape is more rounded than in ♂. Wing ground color blackish brown or dark brown. Many subspecies have two forms (dark and light), depending on the presence or absence of the vein-stripes on FW. HW has dark discal spots, the shape and size of which vary between individuals and subspecies. The underside resembles the surface, but FW with broad, distinctive vein-stripes, and the yellow spots on HW whiten. Red hairs tufts are present on the neck and lateral thorax as in ♂. The upper surface of abdomen is dark brown, while the undersurface is yellow.

(Larval foodplant)

Aristolochia tagala, A. foveolata²⁰⁾