[Movie File] Krishna Peacock (Papilio krishna)

[Movie File] Krishna Peacock (Papilio krishna)  

   Definitely this is one of the most famous and beautiful swallowtails in the world. From long time ago, many butterfly collectors have been fascinated by its attraction. In the old days it was known from Nepal or Sikkim, but now many specimens seem to be obtained from southern China and Myanmar (Burma). Some of our society members must have visited “Tiger Hill” in Darjeeling (India) which is famous as the habitat of Kaiser-I-Hind (Teinopalpus imperialis) to look for this beautiful swallowtail.

   More than ten years have already passed since the journey. At the last summer of the university student, the author of this blog went on a long trip to collect butterflies in Kachin state, northern Myanmar. This place has been revealed as a great butterfly hotspot only recently. Many rare and interesting species have been recorded within past ten or fifteen years. One of the good examples is the endemic Amathusiinae (Allaemona prasopsuki). Here in Kachin state, Krishna Peacock (Papilio krishna) can be seen at ca.1000m extraordinary low for this species. In fact in the old days, this species was seen at same elevation in Sikkim, however the deforestation for tea plantations completely destroyed its habitat. It is said that this species has gone extinct at low elevation now. This species seems to one brood at high elevation (more than 2500m) in Nepal and adjacent area on the other hand it has two broods at low elevation such as Kachin state. At low elevation, the second brood is quite huge in size.

    I have never seen any video of Krishna Peacock (Papilio krishna), so here very special and precious video is shown for the first time. This video was taken during the long trip to Kachin state. This butterfly was spotted at ca. 1300m in mid-August. When Krishna Peacock (Papilio krishna) starts mud paddling usually it flatters its wings as it is shown in this video, but later it opens its wings flat and stays still. This butterfly which is recorded in this video flew away suddenly when I quit filming and started to prepare the net. I was standing in a stupor and seeing this butterfly going away upon a small stream.

   Now the author secretly plans to visit there again to film Krishna Peacock (Papilio krishna) with the advanced digital video camera (Hi-Vision) to record its beauty completely.