Graphium confucius Hu, Duan & Cotton, 2018

Hu, Shao-Ji, Cotton, Adam M., Lamas, Gerardo, Duan, Kuang & Zhang, Xin, 2023, Checklist of Yunnan Papilionidae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) with nomenclatural notes and descriptions of new subspecies, Zootaxa 5362 (1), pp. 1-69 : 17

16. Graphium confucius Hu, Duan & Cotton, 2018 stat. rev.

Graphium (Pazala) confucius Hu, Duan & Cotton, 2018 ; in Hu et al., Zootaxa, 4441 (3): 426; TL: ‘Xichong, Kunming, C. Yunnan, China’.

Distribution: commonly found in most parts of Yunnan above 1,800 m; widely distributed in C. China; also found in N. Vietnam.

Note: Huang (2023) placed Graphium confucius as a subspecies of G. mandarinus based on variability of genitalia characters and specimens that he regarded as hybrids from W. Sichuan, where both taxa are sympatric. However, G. mandarinus is univoltine whereas G. confucius has three generations per year. The supposed hybrids are actually spring generation G. confucius which are identical to overwintering offspring obtained from the early stages of Kunming G. confucius reared by Zhang et al. (2018). As stated by Hu et al. (2018) the male and female genitalia of these species are variable, but they can be distinguished on consistent wing shape and pattern characters, which correlate with differences in COI sequences between the two taxa. Graphium confucius stat. rev. is here confirmed as a separate species to G. mandarinus .