Africa Wild

Papilio Dardanus. The female has the skill of imitating (mimicry) multiple other species of butterflies.

Papilio dardanus displays a very diverse array of wing patterns and it is therefore not surprising that many forms were initially described as separate species. It was not until 1869 that it was recognized that these forms did in fact belong to one species.

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Lisbeth, but you must elaborate a bit further.

I knew that you would say that

It was hard enough to find the above

I am multitasking right now! Later I'll have a try

Has it something to do with the tail?

Or breeding?

It has to do with the mimicry as you are saying. Just explain this

The mocker swallowtail, Papilio dardanus, has a female-limited polymorphic mimicry. This polymorphism is controlled by allelic variation at a single locus with at least 11 alleles*. Many of the alternative morphs are accurate mimics of different species of distasteful butterflies.

*An allele is one of two, or more, forms of a given gene variant.

Sufficient?

Most Spectacular Batesian Mimicry

The swallowtail butterfly, Papilio dardanus, occurs throughout most of Africa. While the males maintain a typical swallowtail appearance, the females occur in over thirty different mimetic forms that clearly resemble various species of two danaid genera.

Batesian mimicry involves a palatable, unprotected species (the mimic) that closely resembles an unpalatable or protected species (the model). This theory was first presented in 1861 by H.W. Bates. The larvae of these model butterflies eat plants that contain noxious substances which pass, either altered or unaltered, to the adult stage. Such chemicals make the model undesirable to predators. The mimics lack these substances in their bodies making them quite edible. The mimics don't share the models nasty taste or painful sting, just its appearance and behavior.


Papilio dardanus has a highly specialized Batesian mimetic relationship with model species in the genera Danaus and Amauris . Caterpillars of the model butterflies feed on distasteful plants such as milkweed and pass the chemicals to the adult, making them distasteful to predators-namely, birds and monkeys. The males and females of these model genera are similar; however, the species vary greatly in appearance. The mimic, P. dardanus contains some eight races. The color pattern in males is always black and yellow, and differs only in detail from race to race (Clarke and Sheppard 1960a). The males have a typical swallowtail appearance and are readily eaten by birds.

The females are highly polymorphic, making this a spectacular mimicry.
Some female morphs share a very similar pattern of colouration with various species of distasteful butterfly (e.g. from the Danainae, a subfamily of nymphalids), while others have been found that mimic male appearance (andromorphs). The persistence of these various morphs or different types of females may be explained by frequency dependent selection. Batesian mimics gain a fitness advantage by avoiding predators, but suffer harassment from males, whereas andromorphs (male mimics) are vulnerable to predation but are not harassed by male mating attempts.

Morphs are divided into three general groups based on patterning: the hippocoon group, the cenea group, and the planemoides group. The hippocoon group holds the largest amount of morphs; phenotypes within this group are characterized by four bands of alternating black and color patterns. Within the cenea group patterns are greatly dominated by black coloration and contain small splotches of color. The planemoides group has black bands surrounding the outside of the wing with a large splotch of color through the middle of the wing.

Nature (evolution) is certainly not short of fantasy.