Butterflies of
the Amazon and Andes
King Page
Swallowtail
Heraclides thoas
LINNAEUS, 1771
Family -
PAPILIONIDAE
subfamily -
PAPILIONINAE
Tribe - PAPILIONINI
Heraclides thoas, 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
isodorus are black with pink patches
on the hindwings and are superficially similar to
Parides and
Eurytides.
Heraclides thoas is extremely similar in appearance to
H. cresphontes, - the 2 species can
only be distinguished by close examination of the
abdominal tip. Their distribution differs, with
thoas being distributed from
Mexico to Bolivia and Argentina ( and as a rare stray in the
southern USA ); while H. cresphontes has
a more northerly distribution being found from Canada to
Venezuela.
Heraclides thoas, Satipo, Peru
Habitats
This species is found in many
different habitats including rainforest, cloudforest, deciduous
forest, orchards and suburban zones at altitudes between 0-1200m.
Lifecycle
The egg is chestnut
coloured, globular and smooth in texture. It is laid singly on the leaves
or stems of Piper ( Piperaceae )
growing
along forest edges, roadsides and riverbanks. The larva resembles
a bird dropping. Like all Papilionid larvae it is equipped with an extrusible forked appendage called an
osmaterium which is situated behind the head. This is everted if
the larva is molested, and gives off a noxious pheromone
containing isobutyric acid, which is used as a
defence against ants.
Heraclides thoas,
half-grown larva, Rio Alto Madre de Dios, Peru
Adult behaviour
Males are frequently seen on river beaches, dry river beds, damp sunny
tracks and other places where they can imbibe mineralised
moisture. Sometimes they are seen singly, but more often in small
group of about 4-6 amidst aggregations of Pierids such as
Phoebis,
Aphrissa & Rhabdodryas.
Both sexes commonly visit flowers, showing a particular preference
for Lantana. When feeding at flowers
the forewings are constantly fluttered - a feature common to most
Papilioninae wherever in the world they occur.
Copulation probably occurs in late afternoon - at Rio Frio in Venezuela I
observed a copulating pair of thoas,
settled with wings outspread on the foliage of a large-leaved bush
just before dusk. On the same leaf were 3 other
thoas, all with
wings outspread and overlapping those of their neighbours.
Heraclides thoas, Satipo, Peru
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