100 years of Silence- The Yellow-Crested Spangle

Well, this is The Butterfly Jungle, a place to celebrate beauty and surprises in life, so I thought it would be fun to periodically post a quick feature about one of our beautiful winged Lepidoptera wonders- common, rare, striking, beautiful, simple, huge, tiny. And what a better way to kick things off with a bit a joyful news, a butterfly that was sighted in 2009 after a 100 year absence. I give you the Yellow Crested Spangle (Papilio elephenor Doubleday)-



Image via ButterflyCorner.net



Kushal Choudhury, a lepodopterist researching swallowtail butterflies for his PhD, spotted a Yellow Crested Spangle in 2009 in the Ripu-Chirang Wildlife Sanctuary in the northeastern state of Assam, India (darker pink area on the map below). The sancutary is located in the extreme northwest of Assam.

Image via Wikimedia Commons


 The Yellow Crested Spangle, long thought by some to be extinct, is listed under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972, which means "really really endangered and very protected."

Image via Wildlife Extra

Mr. Choudhury's photograph (above) of the mud puddling swallowtail is the first ever live photograph of the butterfly since it was initially described in 1845.

Photo by Naturhistorisches Museum Wien; Photographer Thomas Neubauer Via Butterfly Corner



So that's our beautiful Yellow Crested Spangle, making an appearance after a long, mysterious retreat. Don't you love it when there are new discoveries and re-discoveries in the world?

Thanks for visiting today- hope you enjoyed the butterfly!