Almost impossible to find! Teinopalpus imperialis, the Kaiser-i-Hind butterfly from 1964, Northern India.
India banned the exportstion of ALL wildlife in 1972 and T. imperialis was also added as a CITES protected species, meaning the ONLY way to get a specimen from India is from pre-1972 collections.
These can still be found for sale from SE Asia, most being sold without CITES permits, but specimens from India are INCREDIBLY RARE, with only a handful of known specimens in museums (including the Tokyo Museum in Japan)
A true collector's item.
This has been placed in a new riker mount (but can easily be removed) and includes original collection label from 1964. One tail is dettached (but still in place in the riker).
