Parnassius phoebus (Small Apollo, Alpen Apollo)

Parnassius phoebus, also called as Small Apollo or Alpen Apollo is a very nice butterfly from Palaearctic ecozone (Asia). The first description was in 1793 by Fabricius. With a wingspan of 4,5 – 5,5 cm the Small Apollo is a small member of the family PAPILIONIDAE. The butterfly is white and translucent with black and red spots.

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 Parnassius phoebus (Small Apollo, Alpen Apollo). Parnassius phoebus is a member of the family PAPILIONIDAE from Palaearctic (Asia).

Description

The forewings are white and transparent at the margin. There are five black spots on wings and some of these has red cores. There is a black powdered area aroud the body.
The underside is a copy of upside.

The hind wings are white. There is a dark and red powdered zone around the body. Two very big, black bordered red spots are on the wing.
The underside is white with. There is a red area around the body. Going backwards there are two litle red spots. The big red spots from upsinde have white cores there.

The body is black and very hairy. The hairs are white.

Sex differences: The red spots are bigger at female.

Distribution

The Small Apollo (Parnassius phoebus) is a very nice butterfly of the Palaearctic ecozone (Asia) without the North of Africa. The distribution extend from Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongoloia to China. Furtheremore there are some insula distribution in the Alps and Alaska.
You can see the Small Apollo until 1500 m sea level.

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

Flight period

The flight period of Small Apollo is from June to September.

Larval food

Saxifrage

General information

The first description of this butterfly was in 1793 by Fabricius. This species is very variable and therefore there are some subspecies.

Parnassius phoebus alaskensis [Eisner, 1956]
Parnassius phoebus apricatus [Stichel, 1906]
Parnassius phoebus corybas [Fischer von Waldheim, 1824]
Parnassius phoebus elias [Bryk, 1934]
Parnassius phoebus fortuna O. [Bang-Haas, 1912]
Parnassius phoebus golovinus [Holland, 1930]
Parnassius phoebus intermedius [Ménétriés, 1851]
Parnassius phoebus interpositus [Herz, 1903]
Parnassius phoebus ochotskensis [Bryk & Eisner, 1931]
Parnassius phoebus sauricus [Lukhtanov, 1999]
Parnassius phoebus sayii [Edwards, 1863]
Parnassius phoebus sedakovi [Ménétriés, 1850]
Parnassius phoebus uralensis [Ménétriés, 1859]

The caterpillar is black with two chains of yellow spots at side. The pupa has a silken cocoon. This species overwinters as egg.

The distribution of Small Apollo overlap with the distributions of Apollo (Parnassius apollo).
The following differentiators are very useful to differ these similar species.

The Apollo is bigger than the Small Apollo.
The Small Apollo has red spots on forewings.
The antennae of Small Apollo are striped in white and black.
The antennae of Apollo are white.

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:

-potentially endangered; (category. 4)- (see: www.roteliste.at/)
Regulation of the Viennese regional government:

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