27219_male_Hautes-Alpes_14Jul11

27175_female_Hautes-Alpes_14Jul11

27186_female_Hautes-Alpes_14Jul11

Very similar to its close cousin, the Apollo (P. apollo), although much less frequently encountered. It tends to be found at higher altitudes and Lafranchis gives the normal minimum altitude as 1800m, although occasionally occurring as low as 1300m. I have only seen it in three locations, all above 2000m.

The female is slightly larger and with a greyish suffusion and heavier markings generally, usually with a upf black spot in the discal region of s1b. Phoebus has two subspecies in France, sacerdos, the normal subspecies (as on this page), and gazeli, a very white form occurring in a few high altitude locations in the Alpes-Maritimes.

Phoebus is a species that always seems to stay close to water, often being  seen at the edges of rivers, even if flowing torrentially.

Phoebus can be distinguished from apollo by the absence of the black spot in s1b of the upf, only true for males, although the females could be differentiated by the much more extensive greyish suffusion of phoebus. The phoebus upf post-discal spot in s8 is red-centred, whereas for apollo it is not; this holds true for both sexes. The definitive difference is that the phoebus antennal shaft is clearly ringed whereas the apollo shaft is indistinctly ringed. The male phoebus has a distinctly creamy-white appearance. Apollo also flies at subalpine levels.

The females of (I believe) all three French Parnassius species have a device at the end of the abdomen to prevent mating when it has already done so, called a sphragis. I believe it to be a waxy structure applied by males after copulation which then hardens. The Clouded Apollo (P. mnemosyne) female sphragis is particularly large and can clearly be seen on examples on the mnemosyne page. I have not seen or read of the phoebus sphragis anywhere, but I understand it is a feature of Parnassius species.

ref

sex

observations

alt. m

27219

M

a male, lightly marked and settling, as it often seems to do, low in grassy regions.

2550

27175

F

a female, the characteristic duskiness being quite apparent. 27186 is the underside.

2040

27186

F

a female, the underside of 27175. The three red rings are more suffused in phoebus than apollo, where the red rings are quite crisp with clear white centres.

2040