Butterflies of
North America
Zebra
Swallowtail
Protographium
marcellus
CRAMER, 1777
Family -
PAPILIONIDAE
subfamily -
PAPILIONINAE
Tribe
- LEPTOCIRCINI
Protographium marcellus, Tennessee, USA ©
Ken Childs
Introduction
Butterflies in the genus Protographium
are characterised by having translucent whitish or yellowish
wings, marked with bands or stripes of black or dark brown. The
forewings are decidedly triangular in shape, and the hindwings
adorned with a single long sword-like tail.
There are 13 Protographium species,
distributed variously from the USA to Bolivia. Several of the
species, including the North American
celadon, philolaus and
marcellus, were formerly placed in
Eurytides. That genus was later
split, with members of it's subgenus
Eurygraphium reassigned to
Protographium, and members of it's other subgenus
Bellerographium retained in Eurytides.
Protographium marcellus is recorded
from most of the states of the eastern USA, and from Cuba.
Habitats
This species is
found in light deciduous woodland and grassland / woodland
mosaics, usually in damp areas, at altitudes between sea level
and about 600m.
Lifecycle
The egg is pale
green globular. It is laid singly on the leaves of the larval
foodplants. The
larva feeds on Asimina (
Annonaceae ).
Adult behaviour
Males obtain
their sustenance almost exclusively by imbibing mineralised
moisture from mud, while females feed instead on flower nectar.
|
