Zerynthia rumina, the Spanish festoon, is a butterfly belonging to the family Papilionidae. It is a widespread species in Iberia and frequents most habitats.
Zerynthia rumina is an extremely striking species. In south east France it can be confused with the southern festoon (Zerynthia polyxena). The two can be told apart by the presence of blue on the hindwing of the southern festoon. The Spanish festoon also has extensive red on the forewings.
Description in Seitz
T. rumina L. (10 a). At once distinguished from polyxena by the totally different underside of the hindwing, which bears whitish yellow spots at the base. Nearly all the costal spots of the forewing are marked with red. The 3 or 4 black parallel cell-bars of polyxena are in rumina enlarged, being separated by thin yellow bands. In Spain and Portugal, also in Morocco and Algiers, but occurring here only in the coast districts in a slightly different form (10 a). — In ab. canteneri Stgr. (10 a), which occurs singly among ordinary rumina in South Spain and Morocco, the ground-colour is dark yellow, almost orange, the transparent apical spot being therefore very prominent, appearing bright silvery. — ab. honnorati Boisd. (10a). is the name of a form in which the red colour is very much extended, the spots of the hindwing merging together to an often broad purple-band. This form occurs in South France, especially in the neighbourhood of Digne, but only very sparingly, the ordinary form of South France being medesicaste Ill. (10 a), in which the black spots of the forewing are mostly centred with red, while the red spots of the hindwing remain separate. — Also of these forms melanotic aberrations have been found, that of the Spanish rumina being named tristis Oberth., while the black form of the French medesicaste is hartmanni Stdfss. — In ab. paucipunctata Neub. all the red spots of the forewing are reduced, whUe in ab. alicea Neub. the third (reduced) black costal spot has no red centre. — Transitions from typical rumina to medesicaste are named ab. castiliana, from Castilia. — Larva yellow, red, or blackish, with short pale stripes and yellowish red tubercles bearing black hairs; earh' summer, on Aristolochia. Pupa grey -brown, variegated with black. — The butterflies are on the wing in spring, in the South already in February, in North Spain late in March; they are found on sunny slopes and in vineyards, settling especially often on Asphodelus.
[1]
Male
Male underside
Female
Female underside
Eggs
Caterpillar
Habitat, Algarve, Portugal
Flight period
The flight period is generally in April and May with the possibility of a very small second brood in September.
Synonymy
This species represents an extreme example of oversplitting.
rumina Linnaeus (=andalusicaRibbe 1910) (south Spain: Andalusia).
ornatiorBlachier, 1905 = africana (Stichel, 1907), = mauretanica Schultz, 1908 (Northern Africa: Algeria, Morocco: Tangier). The name ornatior is not the correct one for the northern African representative. canteneri (Heydenrich i.l.) Staudinger, 1861 (= canteneri Heyd. 1851, was originally applied to African populations and is the valid name, c.f. Cajetan Felder and Rudolf Felder (1864), Rothschild (1917), canteneri is generally considered a European form but the type locality was fixed 'Algeria' by Cajetan and Rudolf Felder (l.c.) whereas Staudinger (1861) only, and apparently erroneously, referred the name to the Iberian form ochracea. Manley and Allcard (1970) following Bryk (1934) referred to canteneri Staudinger as an orange aberration of both sexes which is frequent in Morocco but occasionally appears in warmer parts of south Spain.
form irregularis Holland, 1912
form distorta Rothschild, 1918
form ornatissima Blachier, 1908
form nebulosa Holland, 1912
form xanthe Schultze, 1908
form honorathii Boisduval, 1832
form poujadei Thierry-Meg, 1910
form canteneri Staudinger, 1861
form nigricans Holland, 1912
form minusculus Eisner
form posteriorrubromarginalis Eisner
form paucipunctata Neuburger
References
^Seitz. A. in Seitz, A. ed. Band 1: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Tagfalter, 1909, 379 Seiten, mit 89 kolorierten Tafeln (3470 Figuren) This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Gil-T., F., 2008: The form canteneri Staudinger of Zerynthia rumina L., an interesting case of sex-linked inheritance: a study of its occurrence in captive-bred specimens and notes about other forms and aberrations (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). ISSN 0171-0079 | Atalanta 39 (1/4): 337-342, 421. Full article: [1].