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Natural History Photographs
by Cor Zonneveld
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Swallowtails: family Papilionidae
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subfamily Parnassiinae
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Parnassius apollo
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Saas Fee, Switzerland; August 1991.
When a cloud blocked direct sunshine, this Apollo
tried to catch the warmth of the bare ground.
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Saas Fee, Switzerland; August 1991. Habitat
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Saas Fee, Switzerland; August 1991.
Male and female in copula. The female probably is not too happy with this position!
To be honest, to me it looks like sexual assault...
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Parnassius phoebus
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Zermatt, Switzerland; July 1991. Habitat
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Passo de Lucomagno (Tessin), Switzerland; 15 & 18 July 2007.
top row, female; bottom, male.
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The big difference in these two subspecies is, in my opinion, not so much in their color, as well as in their habitat.
The Ax-les-Thermes population flies in a really wet area, with lushly green vegetation. The Parnassus population
flies in a dry and barren environment, probably extremely hot in summer. I guess that neither population would be
able to survive in the others habitat; if I'm correct, they could as well be treated as separate species!
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Zerynthia rumina
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Ronda, Spain; April 1982.
This is one of the few European butterflies with a coloured abdomen.
Landscape with habitat;
Ronda can just be seen in the extreme upper left corner of the photograph.
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