Allancastria cerisyi (Eastern Festoon, Östlicher Osterluzeifalter)

Allancastria cerisyi, also called Eastern Festoon or Östlicher Osterluzeifalter is a very charming butterfly from Palaearctic ecozone (Asia). The first description was in 1824 by Godart. With a wingspan of 4.5 – 5.5 cm the Eastern Festoon is a small member of the family PAPILIONIDAE. The butterfly is white or yellowish with black and red spots. Hind wings have little tails.

Photos for easy identification

: Photo © by Mario Maier (Mario.Maier@butterflies.de)

: Photo © by Mario Maier (Mario.Maier@butterflies.de)

These are nice photos of Allancastria cerisyi (Eastern Festoon, Ötlicher Osterluzeifalter). Allancastria cerisyi is a member of the family PAPILIONIDAE from Palaearctic (Asia).

Description

The forewings are white or yellowish and have a black margin. There are some big black spots and a dark area around the body.
The underside is whitish and a copy of upside, but there are some differences. There is no black at the margin.

The hind wings are white or yellowish and have little tails. There are some black spots in the middle of wing and a dark area around the body. There is a chain of red spots going backwards. There is a black band with contain a chain of blue spots at the margin.
The underside is whitish and a copy of upside, but there are some differences. There are no blue spots.

The body is black with fine orange strips on the side.

Sex differences: None

Distribution

The Eastern Festoon (Allancastria cerisye) is a nice butterfly of the Palaearctic ecozone (Europe and Asia).

: This world map shows the ecozones in which this butterfly is distributed.

Flight period

The flight period of the Eastern Festoon is from April to June.

Larval food

Aristolochiaceen

General information

The first description of this butterfly was in 1824 by Godart. There are some subspecies.

Allancastria cerisyi dalmacijae [Sala & Bollino, 1994]
Allancastria cerisyi ferdinandi [Stichel, 1907]
Allancastria cerisyi huberi [Sala & Bollino, 1994]
Allancastria cerisyi mihljevici [Sijaric, 1990]

The caterpillar is withe with many black and orange thorny warts. The pupa has a silken girdl. This species overwinters as pupa.

The distribution of Eastern Festoon overlap with the distributions of Southern Festoon (Zerynthia polyxena)
The following differentiators are very useful to differ these similar species.

The Southern Festoon is yellow.
The Eastern Festoon has little tail on hind wings.

: Photo © by Mario Maier (Mario.Maier@butterflies.de)

Here you can see a female of Eastern Festoon.

: Photo © by Mario Maier (Mario.Maier@butterflies.de)

Here you can see a male of Eastern Festoon.

Protection provisions / Red List

CITES: (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora):

-no entry- (as at 23.06.2005)
EU regulation on trading with species of wild Fauna and Flora

-no entry- (as at 19.08.2005)
IUCN Red List of threatened species:

-no entry- (as at 2004) (see: www.redlist.org/)
Red List of endangered species of Austria:

-unrepresented- (see: www.roteliste.at/)
Regulation of the Viennese regional government:

-unrepresented- (see: www.wien.gv.at/recht/landesrecht-wien/rechtsvorschriften/html/l4800200.htm)