Parnassius baileyi, or Bailey's Apollo, is a high-altitude butterfly which is found in southwestern China (Sichuan, northern Yunnan and eastern Tibet). It is a member of the snow Apollo genus (Parnassius) of the swallowtail family (Papilionidae).

Bailey's Apollo
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Genus: Parnassius
Species:
P. baileyi
Binomial name
Parnassius baileyi
South, 1913

The taxonomic status of this butterfly is uncertain. P. baileyi was originally described as a subspecies of P. acco, later as a subspecies of P. rothschildianus Bryk, 1931 and also P. przewalskii (Alphérakyi 1887), and now also treated as a separate species (Weiss 1992), (Chou, 1994). Molecular studies suggest it is the sister species of P. acco.

The butterfly was named for Frederick Marshman Bailey who collected the first specimens.

Subspecies

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  • Parnassius baileyi baileyi
  • Parnassius baileyi bubo Bryk, 1938
  • Parnassius baileyi rothschildianus Bryk, 1931

References

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  • Chou, I. (ed) 1994. Monographia Rhopalocerorum Sinensium (Monograph of Chinese Butterflies) [in Chinese]. Henan Scientific and Technological Publishing House, Zhengzhou.
  • Weiss, J.-C. 1992. The Parnassiinae of the World. Part 2. Sciences Nat, Venette; 87 pp.
  • Chen, Yong-Jiu et al. 1999 The Phylogeny of 5 Chinese Peculiar Parnassius Butterflies Using Noninvasive Sampling mtDNA Sequences Journal of Genetics and Genomics 26(3): 203-207
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