Trojanus amphitrion, CRAMER, 1775

Chainey, John E., 2005, The species of Papilionidae and Pieridae (Lepidoptera) described by Cramer and Stoll and their putative type material in the Natural History Museum in London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 145 (3), pp. 283-337 : 294

AMPHITRION CRAMER, 1775

Pap[ilio] Eq[ues] Achiv[us] amphitrion Cramer, 1775: 10 , 151, pl.7, figs A, B [original plate 208, figs A, A]. ‘l’Amerique’ [error, possibly Indonesia, Ambon].

Papilio Eques Trojanus amphitrion, Stoll, 1782b: 2 [No. 11].

Material examined. No potential Cramer specimens located.

Remarks. In discussing this species, Rothschild (1895) states that ‘specimens agreeing with Cramer’s figure are unknown to science’ and ‘we know that Cramer purchased a number of specimens of Seba’s collection some 40 years after Seba’s plates were drawn, and it is most probable that Cramer’s figures of P. amphitrion as well as of Troides hypolitus …were drawn up from Seba’s (strongly mutilated) individuals and restored with the help of Seba’s figures’. I do not know Rothschild’s source for the information regarding Seba’s specimens, but Engel (1937) says that ‘it seems that Cramer, 1775 possessed figures of Seba that had not been published’, though he had no information on how Cramer had got them. Cramer is not mentioned in the sale catalogue of Seba’s collection ( Engel, 1961).

Current status. Possibly a senior subjective synonym of Papilio (Menelaides) gambrisius Cramer, 1777 , but as it has not been used, the best option would be for amphitrion Cramer to be suppressed.