Clodius Parnassian - Parnassius clodius

Sexing Parnassius clodius

I have some nice photos of a Parnassius clodius, and am trying to find information on determining which sex the individuals are. The site linked below says that females have large transparent areas on the forewings. But other sites only mention a red anal bar, which I can't see in any of my photos or in other photos I see on the web.

Anyone know of a sure-fire sexing characteristic (except for the sphragis)?

http://www.entomology.ualberta.ca/searching_species_details.php?c=8&rnd=32051119&s=1983

… Stephen Hart, 24 August, 2006 - 5:04pm

Parnassius clodius

The last time I posted, I was missing some important photos. This afternoon, I had the opportunity to take 135 photos of a female P. clodius who had mated. I've added the photos to my Parnassius clodius page that show the wing transparency clearly (heh, heh), the sphragis and the red anal bar, and will shortly add a photo to bugguide.

… Stephen Hart, 29 July, 2007 - 7:36pm

not sure

The way I identified the gender of these was by the end of the abdomen. I don't know of any reliable way to tell by wing patterns, but I've only seen a few of these that weren't flying.

… tom murray, 24 August, 2006 - 11:05pm

Parnassius Clodius sex determination

Robert Michael Pyle, in his The Butterflies of Cascadia, says:
"females partly transparent" and "Male abdoment cream-furry, female shiny black with big white sphragis."

The female I saw was not mated, so I didn't get any photos of the sphragis. I've posted a page, with the other field characteristics, here:
http://www.eugraph.com/photos/insects/pclodius

… Stephen Hart, 26 August, 2006 - 6:51pm