Papilio phorcas

Papilio phorcas, the apple-green swallowtail or green-banded swallowtail, is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. It is found in Africa.

The larvae feed on Teclea nobilis, Teclea simplicifolia, Macrostylis villosa, Vepris, Calodendrum, Clausena, Citrus, Fagara and Toddalia species.

Description
A tailed species. The ground colour is black, with green markings.

Taxonomy
Papilio phorcas is a member of the dardanus species group. The members of the clade are:


 * Papilio dardanus Brown, 1776
 * Papilio constantinus Ward, 1871
 * Papilio delalandei Godart, [1824]
 * Papilio phorcas Cramer, [1775]
 * Papilio rex Oberthür, 1886

Subspecies

 * P. p. phorcas (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria)
 * P. p. ansorgei Rothschild, 1896 . (Kenya (highland forest east of the Rift Valley))
 * P. p. congoanus Rothschild, 1896 (Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, northern Angola, Congo Republic, western Uganda, western Tanzania, northern Zambia)
 * P. p. nyikanus Rothschild & Jordan, 1903 (highland forest of north-eastern Zambia, Malawi and eastern Tanzania)
 * P. p. ruscoei Krüger, 1928 (eastern Uganda, Kenya (highlands west of the Rift Valley))
 * P. p. sudanicola Storace, 1965 (southern Sudan)
 * P. p. tenuifasciatus Kielland, 1990 (northern Tanzania, Kenya)
 * P. p. bardamu Canu, 1994  (Bioko Island)

Biogeographic realm
Afrotropical realm.