Description
Lamproptera meges, the green dragontail, is a species of swallowtail butterfly (family Papilionidae) found in parts of South Asia and Southeast Asia. There are ten subspecies. A specimen from Java is the type species of the genus.
A small butterfly, the green dragontail has a wingspan of 40 to 55 millimetres (1.6 to 2.2 in). It is basically black and white in colour scheme, it has a very large white-tipped tail, 25 to 40 millimetres (0.98 to 1.57 in) long. The forewing has a triangular hyaline (glass-like) patch with black borders, and thin black stripes along the veins, forming six to eight spot/bands. It also has a pale band running obliquely across the pre-discal area. This band is continued onto the black hindwing which bears the long tail and prominent abdominal wing fold. In this species, the pale bands are light green while in its closely related species, Lamproptera curius, they are white. Also in L. curius, the white band has a hyaline outer edge. Sexes are alike, but the female is duller and has a ventral copulation groove before the tip of the abdomen. The males of this species do not have the sex mark (scent organ) found in L. curius.
