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The Roman satirist Juvenal wrote in AD 82 of rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno ("a rare bird in the lands, and very like a black swan"). [6] He meant something whose rarity would compare with that of a black swan, or in other words, as a black swan was not thought to exist, neither did the supposed characteristics of the "rare bird" with which it was being compared.
Papilio polyxenes, the (eastern) black swallowtail, American swallowtail or parsnip swallowtail, [4] is a butterfly found throughout much of North America. An extremely similar-appearing species, Papilio joanae , occurs in the Ozark Mountains region, but it appears to be closely related to Papilio machaon , rather than P. polyxenes .
The Northern Hemisphere species of swan have pure white plumage, but the Southern Hemisphere species are mixed black and white. The Australian black swan ( Cygnus atratus ) is completely black except for the white flight feathers on its wings; the chicks of black swans are light grey.
Depictions of swans (genus Cygnus) in art. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks . Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini .
This polymorphism is seen in Papilio dardanus, the African swallowtail butterfly, whose females have three different morphs for wing color pattern: a black-and-white pattern for Batesian mimicry, a black-and-yellow pattern that resembles the males of the species, and a pattern with orange patches that resembles the elderly males of the species ...
The swan was "cemented in the imagination as a creature of romance for a whole generation of impressionable working class suburban kids". The anthropomorphic projection may not have been entirely random; [2] swans are believed to take a mate for life, and the graceful white birds might symbolize monogamous felicity. [2]
Underside white, the black markings very similar but of a bronze brown with the following exceptions: Forewing: extensions below the median vein of the basal, subbasal, and median transverse bands crossing the cell, and the inner portion below vein 4 of the terminal broad band, black: on the hindwing the inner discal band is broken, irregular ...
Most pierid butterflies are white, yellow, or orange in coloration, often with black spots. The pigments that give the distinct coloring to these butterflies are derived from waste products in the body and are a characteristic of this family. [2] The family was created by William John Swainson in 1820.