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Butterflies of the Amazon rainforest
 
Torquatus Swallowtail
Heraclides torquatus CRAMER, 1777
Family - PAPILIONIDAE
subfamily - PAPILIONINAE
Tribe - LEPTOCIRCINI
 
 introduction | habitats | lifecycle | adult behaviour
 
Heraclides torquatus ( or possibly H. garleppi ), male, Madre de Dios, Peru
 
Introduction
 
The genus Heraclides includes 28 species, all occurring exclusively in the neotropical region. Many of the species are sooty brown, marked with pink on the hindwings, and lack tails, while others such as thoas, himeros, garleppi and torquatus are marked with prominent cream or yellow bands, and have long spatulate tails in both sexes.
 
The adults of Heraclides torquatus and H. garleppi are virtually identical in appearance. In both species there is considerable geographic variation regarding the size and shape of the apical cream markings, and of the pink, cream and blue-grey spots in the outer area of the underside hindwings. Both species occur throughout the Upper Amazonian region and the Guianas, but the range of torquatus extends north as far as Mexico and southward to northern Argentina.
 
Females of torquatus ( and also garleppi ? ) are very different in appearance, being dark chocolate brown on the upperside, with a white or creamy patch below the discal cell in the forewing, and a bright pink median band on the hindwing. On the underside the female is dark brown, with a double row of pink spots on the hindwings.
 
Habitats
 
This species occurs primarily in wet lowland rainforest areas, but is strongly migratory and can thus be found in a wide variety of forested and open habitats at altitudes up to about 700m.
 
Lifecycle
 
The eggs are globular, greenish-yellow, and laid singly on the leaves of Citrus bushes.
 
The caterpillar when fully grown is mottled in dull tones of brown, greenish-yellow and whitish, with a double row of tubercles along the back. It rests on the upper surface of leaves, with the body curved, and resembles a bird dropping.
 
The chrysalis is dark brown, marbled with green so as to resemble a piece of lichen-encrusted twig.
 
Adult behaviour

 

The butterflies are highly seasonal, the main flight period coinciding with the mid-late dry season.

 

Males migrate along river courses, and are frequently seen in groups of up to about twenty, congregating to imbibe dissolved minerals from urine-soaked sand. Lesser numbers can be seen within the forest, usually when they aggregate with other species at peccary wallows or seepages. They also mud-puddle at swampy ground around the edges of small lagoons, where mineral salts become concentrated as the pools dry out towards the end of the dry season.

 

In common with most other Heraclides and Papilio species, the butterflies usually flutter their wings constantly when mud-puddling. They are of nervous disposition, the whole group taking flight at the least disturbance, although one or two individuals are usually so intoxicated by their liquid sustenance that they remain on the ground.

 

The females are seen much less frequently, usually when flying in light gaps within the forest. They can be confused in flight with females of Parides sesostris, but when settled the tails and twin row of pink spots on the underside hindwings of torquatus can easily be seen.

 

I have found males, sometimes in groups of  3 or 4, at rest on foliage, early on cool mornings, always with their wings outspread. This suggests to me that they may roost communally in the middle canopy, and drop down at dawn to bask in preparation for their first flight of the day.

 

 

Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007-2008, and must not be reproduced or published in part or in whole elsewhere in any form without written permission from Adrian Hoskins. Breach of copyright will be pursued by litigation.

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