Troides helena

{{Short description|Species of butterfly}} {{Speciesbox | name = Common birdwing | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name=IUCN>{{cite iucn |last1=Böhm |first1=M. |last2=Chowdhury |first2=S. |last3=Khanal |first3=B. |last4=Lo |first4=P. |last5=Monastyrskii |first5=A. |year=2018 |title=''Troides helena'' |volume=2018 |article-number=e.T91188632A118127416 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T91188632A118127416.en |access-date=17 March 2026}}</ref> | status2 = CITES_A2 | status2_system = CITES | status2_ref = <ref>{{Cite Species+ |id=4453 |title=''Troides helena'' (Linnaeus, 1758) |access-date=17 March 2026}}</ref> | image = Troides helena - upperside.JPG | image_caption = Male, dorsal side, at Manado, North Sulawesi | genus = Troides | species = helena | authority = (Linnaeus, 1758) | subdivision_ranks = Subspecies | subdivision = 17, see text }}

'''''Troides helena''''', the '''common birdwing''', is a butterfly belonging to the family Papilionidae. It is often found in the wildlife trade due to its popularity with butterfly collectors. The butterfly has seventeen subspecies.<ref name="Red Book">{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=N. Mark |last2=Morris |first2=Michael G. |date=1985 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/98674#page/7/mode/1up |title=Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World: The IUCN Red Data Book |publisher=IUCN |location=Gland & Cambridge |isbn=978-2-88032-603-6 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}</ref> thumb|220px|right|''Troides helena cerberus''. Video clip

== Description == {{For|explanation of terms|External morphology of Lepidoptera}}

The description of the commonest subspecies of the butterfly in India, ''T. h. cerberus'' Felder, is given below:<ref name="bingham">{{cite book |last1=Bingham |first1=C.T. |author-link=Charles Thomas Bingham |title=The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma |url=https://archive.org/details/butterflies02bingiala |volume=II |edition=1st |publisher= Taylor and Francis, Ltd. |location=London |year=1907 }}</ref>

===Male===

Upperside of forewings are rich velvety black with adnervular pale streaks on either side of the veins beyond the cell. The cilia is short, black, alternated with pale buffy white in the middle of the interspaces.

Hindwing: the abdominal fold, the apical half obliquely of interspace 1, the termen broadly, the base of the cell and the costal area up to and including the basal half of interspace 7 velvety black, the rest of the wing rich silky yellow; the veins prominently but narrowly black; the inner margin of the terminal black border produced inwards into prominent cone-shaped markings in the interspaces.

All specimens have one or more postdiscal black spots in the interspaces, but never a complete series; in interspace 2 and sometimes also in interspace 3 these spots coalesce with the cone-shaped projections of the terminal black border. Underneath the abdominal fold is a dense mass of buffy-white scented cottony pubescence. Underside similar, the adnervular pale streaks on the forewing broader and more prominent.

Hindwing: dorsal margin broadly black, with an edging of long soft black hairs; interspace 1 with a large oval postdiscal and a terminal black spot; interspace 2 with the postdiscal black spot generally separate from the cone-shaped projection of the black terminal border; the apical and lateral margins of interspaces 2-6 pale yellow irrorated (sprinkled) with black scales.

Antenna, head and thorax black, the collar narrowly crimson; abdomen yellow, shaded above with black; beneath: the thorax with a large lateral patch of crimson, the anal segment prominently buff coloured.

===Female===

Upper and under sides of the female is similar to those in the male, but with the following differences:

* Forewing: the adnervular pale streaks broader and more prominent. * Hindwing: the black at base and along the costal margin broader, occupying fully one-third of the cell, the area above it and above vein 7, interrupted however, in interspace 7 near the apex of wing, by a transverse yellow mark which is sometimes subobsolete; a postdiscal series of large oval black spots, those in interspaces 2 and 3 often joined on the upperside to the cone-shaped terminal black marks; dorsal margin also more broadly black, without the fringe of black hairs and or course of the abdominal fold. Antenna, head and thorax as in the male; abdomen dark brownish black above.

== Subspecies == thumb|right|Flight and nectaring thumb|right|Common birdwing (সোনাল), Kolkata, West Bengal, India thumb|right|Common birdwing (সোনাল), Kolkata, West Bengal, India thumb|right|Illustration of males and females * ''T. h. antileuca'' Rothschild, 1908 * ''T. h. bunguranensis'' Ohya, 1982 * ''T. h. cerberus'' (C. & R. Felder, 1865) * ''T. h. demeter'' Rumbucher & Schäffler, 2005 * ''T. h. dempoensis'' Deslisle, 1993 * ''T. h. euthycrates'' Fruhstorfer, 1913 * ''T. h. ferrari'' Tytler, 1926 * ''T. h. hahneli'' Rumbucher & Schäffler, 2005 * ''T. h. heliconoides'' (Moore, 1877) * ''T. h. hephaestus'' (Felder, 1865) * ''T. h. hermes'' Hayami, 1991 * ''T. h. hypnos'' Rumbucher & Schäffler, 2005 * ''T. h. isara'' Rothschild, 1908 * ''T. h. mopa'' Rothschild, 1908 * ''T. h. mosychlus'' Fruhstorfer, 1913 * ''T. h. neoris'' Rothschild, 1908 * ''T. h. nereides'' Fruhstorfer, 1906 * ''T. h. nereis'' (Doherty, 1891) * ''T. h. orientis'' Parrott, 1991 * ''T. h. propinquus'' Rothschild, 1895 * ''T. h. rayae'' Deslisle, 1991 * ''T. h. sagittatus'' Fruhstorfer, 1896 * ''T. h. spilotia'' Rothschild, 1908 * ''T. h. sugimotoi'' Hanafusa, 1992 * ''T. h. typhaon'' Rothschild, 1908 * ''T. h. venus'' Hayami, 1991

== Distribution and status == ''T. helena'' is widely distributed and locally common in forest areas. Globally it is found in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, peninsular and eastern Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, southern China including Hainan, and Hong Kong.<ref name="Red Book"/> In the Indonesian archipelago, ''T. helena'' is found in Sumatra, Nias, Enggano, Java, Bawean, Kangean Islands, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Great Natuna (Bunguran), Sulawesi, Butung, Tukangbesi, Kalimantan, and Brunei.<ref name="Red Book"/>

In Hong Kong, ''T. helena'' is at the northern limit of its range. It is not common in Hong Kong but it is observed that there are stable populations in three sites (the surrounding area of Po Lo Che (Sai Kung District), Shan Liu Road (Tai Po) and Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden in the New Territories). It is also found on Lantau Island and Hong Kong Island.<ref name="Hong Kong Lepidopterists' Society">[http://www.hkls.org/info-t_helena.html Hong Kong Lepidopterists' Society webpage on Common Birdwing. Accessed 12 October 2006.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927175229/http://www.hkls.org/info-t_helena.html |date=27 September 2006 }}</ref>

In India the ''T. helena'' is found in the north-east of the country including Sikkim, West Bengal, and Orissa. It is also found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.<ref name="Red Book"/> The subspecies found in India are:<ref name="CFSSmetacek2013">{{cite journal|title=Subspecies catalogue of the butterflies of India (Papilionidae): A Synopsis|author1=Cotton, Adam |author2=Fric, Zdenek Faltynek |author3=Smith, Colin |author4=Smetacek, Peter |journal=Bionotes|volume=15 |issue=1|pages=5–8|date=March 2013}}</ref>

* ''T. h. cerberus'' (C. & R. Felder, 1865) – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Orissa, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura, W. Bengal. * ''T. h. heliconoides'' (Moore, 1877) – Andaman Is. * ''T. h. ferrari'' Tytler, 1926 – South Nicobar Is.

The common birdwing, though widespread and common in many of the localities in which it occurs, was classified as vulnerable in 1985.<ref name="Red Book"/>

== Etymology == Helen in Greek mythology was the daughter of Zeus. Cerberus is a multi-headed hound who guards the gates of the Underworld.

== Conservation == This species is protected under Wild Animals Protection Ordinance Cap 170 in Hong Kong.<ref name="Hong Kong Lepidopterists' Society"/> The common birdwing is protected in Indonesia and may also require protection in peninsular Malaya also. It is listed in Appendix II of Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) as are all other ''Troides'' species.<ref name="Red Book"/>

== Food plants == thumb|230px|right|Illustration including larva and pupa of ''Troides helena'' The larval food plants include ''Aristolochia indica'', ''Aristolochia tagala'' and ''Thottea siliquosa''. A food plant for the species, ''Aristolochia tagala'' has been planted in the Kadoorie Farm and Shan Liu Road in Hong Kong to sustain a healthy population of the species.<ref name="Hong Kong Lepidopterists' Society"/>

== Related species == ''Troides helena'' is a member of the ''helena'' species group. The members of this clade are:

* ''Troides helena'' (Linnaeus, 1758) * ''Troides oblongomaculatus'' (Goeze, 1779) * ''Troides × celebensis'' (Wallace, 1865)

== Cited references == {{Reflist}}

== References == * {{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=W.H. |author-link1=William Harry Evans |title=The Identification of Indian Butterflies |edition=2nd |location=Mumbai, India |publisher=Bombay Natural History Society |year=1932 }} * {{cite book |last1=Gay |first1=Thomas |last2=Kehimkar |first2=Isaac David |last3=Punetha |first3=Jagdish Chandra |title=Common Butterflies of India |series=Nature Guides |publisher= World Wide Fund for Nature-India by Oxford University Press |location=Bombay, India |year=1992 |isbn=978-0195631647 }} * {{cite book |last=Haribal |first=Meena |title=The Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and Their Natural History |location=Gangtok, Sikkim, India |publisher=Sikkim Nature Conservation Foundation |year=1992 }} * {{cite book |last=Kunte |first=Krushnamegh |title=Butterflies of Peninsular India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cuPPjOMcu_4C |series=India, A Lifescape |location=Hyderabad, India |publisher=Universities Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-8173713545 }} * Kurt Rumbucher and Oliver Schäffler, 2005 Part 21, Papilionidae XI. Troides IV. helena-group. in Erich Bauer and Thomas Frankenbach Eds. ''Butterflies of the World''. Keltern: Goecke & Evers {{ISBN|978-3-937783-09-3}} * {{cite book|last=Wynter-Blyth |first=Mark Alexander |author-link=Mark Alexander Wynter-Blyth |title=Butterflies of the Indian Region |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEkgAQAAMAAJ |year=1957 |location=Bombay, India |publisher=Bombay Natural History Society |isbn=978-8170192329 }}

== External links == {{Commons category|Troides helena}} {{Wikispecies|Troides helena}}

* [https://butterflycircle.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/life-history-of-common-birdwing.html Life history] Butterflies of Singapore * [https://web.archive.org/web/20111103110126/http://en.butterflycorner.net/Home.home.0.html Butterflycorner.net] * [https://yutaka.it-n.jp/pap/10030010.html Specimen images] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080215110949/http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/invertebrates_terrestrial_and_freshwater/Troides_helena/ ARKive] Photos, video and more information

{{DEFAULTSORT:Troides Helena}} Helena Category:Butterflies of Indochina Category:Butterflies described in 1758 Category:Animal taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Category:Butterflies of Singapore Category:Butterflies of Java Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Helen of Troy Category:Butterflies of Malaysia