Quote Originally Posted by Painted Jezebel View Post
Unforunately, no-one else can either! I think H. zola but I can not be sure. Are they different species? Personally, I am not sure.

It is similar to the recent paper regarding Euthalia phemius and E. ipona. I do not agree with their comments, for a huge number of reasons. Entirely personal.
The males of H. zema & zola have different genitalia, while phemius & ipona have similar ones, I believed.

Here is a hypothetical situation to think about.
Consider Halpe pelethronix ( P ) and H. wantona ( W ).
The males can be diiferentiated by their genitalia but the females not by any mean as stated in C&P4. (DNA analysis not done yet).

Since the male genitalial feature will be determined by the male sex chromosome any mating will result in a specific outcome.
Let us call the common female C.

If P mates with C , all male offsprings will be P & all females will be C.
IF W mates with C, all male offsprings will be W & all females will be C.

Can P & W still be considered separate species despite having different genitalia ?

On an aside note, I find it amazing that Papilio alcmenor is called Redbreast in Thailand.
It would appeared that the namer is only familiar with the first part of the name.

TL Seow