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The Swallowtails (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) of Papua Indonesia
by Jan Moonen
About forms, varieties and aberrations
A species can comprise one or more subspecies. The names of these taxa are submitted to the rules of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). There is no such code for infrasubspecific names because these names are considered to be invalid.
Within a subspecies specimens can differ from each other more or less, which we see as different morphological ‘forms’. If such a ‘form’ is a common feature in the subspecies we call it a forma (f.). These formas usually are genetically based and often linked to the sexe and/or to the phenomenon mimicry, the season, etc.
Within these formas the animals are not completely identical. Even animals with the same genotype can differ a little by the influence of its environment. These differences usually vary between certain limits.
We call this a variety (var.). Individual differences of this varying formas, mostly rare and based on accidental mutations or artefacts, are aberrations (ab.).
In the past nummerous forms have been described and named. In Papilionidae those forms are collector’s items, however, to my opinion these names are useless and unnecessary, but for the sake of completeness I will finally mention all these names on the species pages. The forma names are useful, however, in species with polymorphic females.
