Papilio castor (Common Raven)

Papilio castor, also called Common Raven is a butterfly from Australasia / Indomalaya ecozone (Australia). The first description was in 1842 by Westwood. The wingspan is about 10 – 11 cm. This butterfly is a member of the family PAPILIONIDAE. Papilio castor is black and it has white and yellow spots.

Photos for easy identification

Photo © by Naturhistorisches Museum Wien; Photographer Thomas Neubauer

Photo © by Naturhistorisches Museum Wien; Photographer Thomas Neubauer

Here you can see some photos of Papilio castor (Common Raven) (male). Papilio castor is a member of the family PAPILIONIDAE from Australasia / Indomalaya (Australia).

Description

The fore wings are black.
The underside of Papilio acheron is black. At the edge there are some white spots.

The hind wings of Papilio acheron are black. The edge is wavy. Four yellow spots dominate the wing.
The underside is very similar to the upside. At the edge there is a chain of white spots.

The body (abdomen) is black and it has white spots. The thorax is black. The head is black.

Sex differences: ---

Distribution

Papilio castor is a butterfly from the Australasia / Indomalaya (Australia) ecozone. You can observe this butterfly in Cambodia, Vietnam and Taiwan.

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

Larval food

Rutaceae:

Glycosmis parviflora
Glycosmis pentaphylla
Murraya crenulata
Murraya paniculata
Toddalia asiatica

Magnoliaceae:

Michelia compressa

General information

The first description of this butterfly was in 1842 by Westwood. There are six subspecies.

Papilio castor dioscurus [Jordan, 1909]
Papilio castor formosanus [Rothschild]
Papilio castor hamelus [Crowly]
Papilio castor kanlanpanus [?]
Papilio castor khmer [Boullet & Le Cerf, 1912]
Papilio castor phanrangensis [Fruhstorfer, 1901]

Photo © by Naturhistorisches Museum Wien; Photographer Thomas Neubauer

Photo © by Naturhistorisches Museum Wien; Photographer Thomas Neubauer

Here you can see the subspecies of Papilio castor formosanus (male). The wingspan is 10 cm.

Protection provisions / Red List

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

-No entry- (as at 12.02.2008)
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 2008)