Parides gundlachianus

Cuban cattleheart
Parides gundlachianus in a plate from Reise der Österreichischen Fregatte Novara - at bottom right
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Tribe: Troidini
Genus: Parides
Species: P. gundlachianus
Binomial name
Parides gundlachianus
(C. & R. Felder, 1864)
Synonyms
  • Papilio gundlachianus C. & R. Felder, 1864
  • Papilio columbus Herrich-Schäffer, 1862
  • Papilio grotei Blake, 1865
  • Papilio gundlachianus f. unipunctus Rousseau-Decelle, 1943
  • Papilio gundlachianus f. pauperimus Rousseau-Decelle, 1943
  • Battus gundlachianus var. calzadillae Torre, 1971

Parides gundlachianus, the Cuban cattleheart, is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae. It is an endemic species found only in Cuba. The name honours the Cuban naturalist Juan Gundlach.

It is the brightest-coloured American swallowtail, and may be recognised by the brilliant blue bands on the forewing.

The dark ash-grey larva is striped longitudinally, the head and thoracic legs are black; the black longitudinal stripes in part margined with white; the anterior and posterior segments bear long pointed tubercles which are partly white.

Occurs in the mountainous eastern part of the island, especially near the coast, where it is met with on flowers, and sometimes also drinking at pools.

Subspecies

Etymology

The specific epithet honours the Cuban naturalist Juan Gundlach.

See also

References

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parides gundlachianus.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.