Common white-banded swallowtail facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Common white-banded swallowtail
Papilio cyproeofila in Adalbert Seitz's Fauna Africana, bottom left - upperside and next right - underside
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Genus:	Papilio
Species:	P. cyproeofila
Binomial name
Papilio cyproeofila Butler, 1868
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The Papilio cyproeofila, also known as the common white-banded swallowtail, is a beautiful type of swallowtail butterfly. You can find this butterfly in several countries in Africa. These include Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Nigeria.

Young Papilio cyproeofila butterflies, called larvae or caterpillars, love to eat plants from the Piper family. This is the same plant family that black pepper comes from!

Meet the Family: Subspecies

Just like people can have different family branches, butterflies can have subspecies. These are slightly different versions of the same species. They might live in different areas or have small differences in their looks.

• Papilio cyproeofila cyproeofila: This group lives in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and western Nigeria.
• Papilio cyproeofila praecyola: This group is found in eastern Nigeria, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic. It was first described in 1904.

Butterfly Relatives: The Zenobia Group

Papilio cyproeofila (figures 38 and 40) from the Bulletin of the Hill Museum.

The common white-banded swallowtail belongs to a special group of butterflies called the zenobia species group. Butterflies in this group share similar features.

Their top wings are usually black with cool white or yellowish stripes and spots. If you look at the underside of their wings, it's often brown. Near the body, there's a red area with black stripes and spots. They also have a yellowish band with black lines in the middle part of their wings.

Interestingly, the female butterflies in this group often look like Amauris butterflies. This might be a way to protect themselves from predators! Both male and female butterflies in this group do not have tails on their wings.

Here are some other butterflies that are close relatives in the zenobia group:

• Papilio cyproeofila (first described in 1868)
• Papilio fernandus (first described in 1903)
• Papilio filaprae (first described in 1904)
• Papilio gallienus (first described in 1879)
• Papilio mechowi (first described in 1881)
• Papilio mechowianus (first described in 1885)
• Papilio nobicea (first described in 1904)
• Papilio zenobia (first described in 1775)

What Does It Look Like?

The Papilio cyproeofila butterfly looks a lot like its cousin, the Papilio gallienus. However, there's a key difference! The Papilio cyproeofila has cream-white bands on its wings. The Papilio gallienus has cream-yellow bands. Also, the bands on the Papilio cyproeofila are not curved on their inner edge, which helps tell them apart.