2; see text Praepapilio is an extinct genus of swallowtail butterfly from the middle Eocene deposits of Colorado, United States, comparable to the Lutetian epoch in age.
[1][3] Praepapilio is, so far, the only wholly extinct subtaxon known within the swallowtail family.
The holotype of P. colorado, the type species of the genus, is from the Middle Eocene-aged Green River Shale, Parachute Creek Member, near Raydome, Colorado.
Durden and Rose, in their 1978 paper, compare P. colorado to the extant Baronia brevicornis, and suggest that P. gracilis may be the same species as P. colorado, and that the differences between the two are possibly due to sexual dimorphism.
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