Butterflies of
the Amazon and Andes
Ruby-spotted
Swallowtail
Heraclides
anchisiades
ESPER, 1788
Family -
PAPILIONIDAE
subfamily -
PAPILIONINAE
Tribe - PAPILIONINI
Heraclides anchisiades, Satipo, Peru
Introduction
The Papilionidae is comprised of
about 600 known species. They are found throughout
the world in almost every environment including deserts,
mountains, grasslands, tropical rainforests, temperate woodlands, meadows, marshes and coastal dunes.
There are 3
subfamilies. The Parnassiinae consists of about 50 species. They
are known as
Apollos and breed mainly in mountainous areas of the northern
hemisphere. The Papilioninae comprises of about 550 species
distributed across the world, and includes the Swallowtails and Dragontails,
and the giant Birdwings of south-east Asia. The other subfamily
Baroniinae consists of a single species
Baronia brevicornis which is endemic to the mountains of
western Mexico.
Heraclides comprises of 28 species,
and is the neotropical "sister" genus of the Holarctic
Papilio, to which the European
Swallowtail Papilio machaon, and the
North American Tiger Swallowtail Papilio
glaucus belong. Some of the
Heraclides species are marked with cream spots and bands,
and have obvious affinities with their Holarctic counterparts.
Others including anchisiades and the
female of
torquatus are
Parides mimics, with bright pink
patches on their hindwings.
Heraclides anchisiades is a very common and widespread
species, found from Texas to Paraguay.
Habitats
This species is found in many
different habitats including tropical rainforest, cloudforest, humid deciduous
forest, orchards and suburban zones at altitudes between sea level and about
1400m.
Lifecycle
The eggs are yellow
and laid in clusters of up to 40 on the leaves of the foodplants
which include Casimiroa,
Zanthoxylum and
Citrus ( Rutaceae ).
The caterpillars of
all Papilionidae bear tubercules when in their first instar. In
some genera such as Heraclides and
Eurytides these are absent in the
mature larva, but in others such as Troides,
Battus and
Parides they develop into soft fleshy knobs or hooks. Many
are very colourful, with bright green bodies adorned with orange
or red tubercules, while others such as
Heraclides are dull in colour and similar in appearance to
a bird dropping.
All Papilionidae
caterpillars are equipped with an extrusible forked appendage called an
osmaterium which is situated behind the head. This organ is everted if
the caterpillar is molested, and gives off a noxious pheromone
containing isobutyric acid, which is used as a
defence against ants.
The pupa is
dull brown and resembles a twig. It is attached by
the cremaster and a silken girdle, in an upright position, to a
stem.
Adult behaviour
The butterflies are only active in bright sunshine.
Both sexes will visit Lantana and
the flowers of many trees and shrubs, but males are much more commonly
seen on river beaches and dry river beds, imbibing mineralised
moisture. They are usually seen singly, but sometimes several
gather together, usually amidst aggregations of Nymphalids and
Pierids.
When feeding either at flowers or on the ground, the wings are
kept constantly fluttering - a feature common to Swallowtails
throughout the world. After several minutes, if undisturbed, they
eventually relax and fully outspread their wings.
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