Apatura

As used for the Cracker butterflies by Illiger in 1807, Apatura has been officially rejected and is now Hamadryas.

Apaturina
Lesser Purple Emperor
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
(unranked):	Rhopalocera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Subfamily:	Apaturinae
Genus:	Apatura Fabricius, 1807
Species
see text
Synonyms
Aeola Billberg, 1820 Apaturia Sodoffsky, 1837 Potamis Hübner, [1806]

Apatura is a genus of butterflies commonly known as the emperors.

Purple Emperors (Apatura iris) and Lesser Purple Emperors (Apatura ilia) eat moisture on the body of a dead Common Frog (Rana temporaria), Ukraine

Species

Listed alphabetically.^[1]

• Apatura ilia ([Denis and Schiffermüller], 1775) – Lesser Purple Emperor
• Apatura iris (Linnaeus, 1758) – Purple Emperor
• Apatura laverna Leech, 1893
• Apatura metis Freyer, 1829 – Freyer's Purple Emperor

Moved to genus Chitoria:

• Apatura fasciola (Leech, 1890) now in Chitoria fasciola
• Apatura sordida (Moore, 1865) – Sordid Emperor now in Chitoria sordida
• Apatura ulupi (Doherty, 1889) – Tawny Emperor now in Chitoria ulupi
• Apatura vietnamica Nguyen, 1979 now in Chitoria vietnamica

Moved to genus Mimathyma:

• Apatura ambica (Kollar, 1844) – Indian Purple Emperor now in Mimathyma ambica
• Apatura chevana Moore 1865 – Sargeant Emperor now in Mimathyma chevana
• Apatura nycteis Ménétriès, 1859 now in Mimathyma nycteis
• Apatura schrenckii Ménétriès, 1858 – Schrenck’s Emperor now in Mimathyma schrenckii

Further reading

• 1950. Le Moult (E.), Révision de la classification des Apaturinae de l'Ancien Monde, supplement to Miscellanea Entomologica.
• 1971. Rigout (J.), Une ponte d'Apatura en captivité, Alexanor.
• 1976. Nguyen (T. H.), Les Apatura. Polymorphisme et spéciation (Nymphalidae). Sciences Nat.

References

External links

• images representing Apatura at Consortium for the Barcode of Life

Media related to Apatura at Wikimedia Commons

• Data related to Apatura at Wikispecies