Apatura iris
(Linnaeus, 1758) · speciesAt a glance
Sources7 archives
Databases and archives Apatura iris's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation13 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility72 278 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI63 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics72 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
Apatura iris, the purple emperor, is a Palearctic butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Diet & foraging2
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Apatura iris has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type72 278 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions26 of 72 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| South Kensington, GB | 475 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 447 |
| DanishLepidopterologicalSocietylocation not on record | 347 |
| Zürich, CH | 101 |
| Helsinki, FI | 96 |
| Laboratorium voor Microbiologie der Landbouwhogeschoollocation not on record | 82 |
| UMUlocation not on record | 80 |
| Tartu, EE | 76 |
| Salzburg, AT | 74 |
| Museum Ludovicae Ulricae, Zoology Institute of the University of Uppsalalocation not on record | 67 |
| Bern, CH | 62 |
| NMOKlocation not on record | 62 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 59 |
| Archäologie und Museum Baselland - Museum.BLlocation not on record | 57 |
| DABUHlocation not on record | 53 |
| Frauenfeld, CH | 40 |
| Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausenlocation not on record | 38 |
| Fribourg, CH | 36 |
| Geneva, CH | 35 |
| Paro, BT | 34 |
| Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznańlocation not on record | 33 |
| Brussel, BE | 31 |
| Philadelphia, US | 28 |
| Uniwersytet Łódzkilocation not on record | 24 |
| Museo civico di Storia naturale Giacomo Doria di Genova | Giacomo Doria Natural History Museum in Genoalocation not on record | 23 |
| Winterthur, CH | 18 |
| Metsähallituslocation not on record | 18 |
| SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record | 17 |
| MUZOO - Musée d'histoire naturelle de La Chaux-de-Fondslocation not on record | 16 |
| New Haven, US | 16 |
| Sion, CH | 16 |
| Nijmegen, NL | 16 |
| Naturmuseum Solothurnlocation not on record | 16 |
| Tallinn, EE | 15 |
| Durban Natural Science Museumlocation not on record | 14 |
| Muzeum Górnośląskie w Bytomiulocation not on record | 12 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 12 |
| Cambridge, US | 11 |
| John May Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 10 |
| Instytut Ochrony Przyrody Polskiej Akademii Nauklocation not on record | 10 |
| Cleveland Museum of Natural History, OH (CLEV)location not on record | 10 |
| NCMGlocation not on record | 9 |
| Naturmuseum Oltenlocation not on record | 9 |
| State Museum of Natural History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukrainelocation not on record | 9 |
| Kuopio, FI | 8 |
| Naturéum — Muséum cantonal des sciences naturelles, Lausanne, Département Zoologielocation not on record | 8 |
| CASMlocation not on record | 8 |
| Porrentruy, CH | 6 |
| Naturmuseum St. Gallenlocation not on record | 6 |
| Dhaka, BD | 6 |
| Gyeryonsan Natural History Museumlocation not on record | 5 |
| ZSMlocation not on record | 5 |
| Musee d'Histoire Naturallelocation not on record | 5 |
| ZMAAlocation not on record | 5 |
| Podgorica, ME | 4 |
| EGBlocation not on record | 4 |
| MJIMlocation not on record | 4 |
| MJINlocation not on record | 4 |
| Auckland, NZ | 2 |
| Maduka University Ekwegbe Nsukka Nigerialocation not on record | 2 |
| Casa delle Farfalle di Bordano | Bordano Butterfly Houselocation not on record | 2 |
| Edmonton, CA | 2 |
| Universiteit van Amsterdam, Zoologisch Museumlocation not on record | 2 |
| NMMElocation not on record | 2 |
| KSSlocation not on record | 2 |
| Banyoles, ES | 2 |
| Glarus, CH | 1 |
| Ugentlocation not on record | 1 |
| NHMOlocation not on record | 1 |
| Research Collection of Hartmut Wegnerlocation not on record | 1 |
| Research Collection of Patrick Groslocation not on record | 1 |
| BioFokuslocation not on record | 1 |
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Where the DNA of Apatura iris was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.