''Parides eurimedes'' is a species of

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

in the family

Papilionidae Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful Butterfly, butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includ ...

. It is commonly known as the mylotes cattleheart, Arcas cattleheart, pink-checked cattleheart, and true cattleheart. It is native to the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

Subspecies

In 2004, Gerardo Lamas combined ''Parides arcas'' and ''Parides timias'' into ''Parides eurimedes''. He lists the following subspecies: * ''P. e. eurimedes'' (Stoll, 1782) (northern

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and northern

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

) * ''P. e. agathokles'' (Kollar, 1850) (Colombia) * ''P. e. antheas'' (Rothschild & Jordan, 1906) (Colombia) * ''P. e. arriphus'' (Boisduval, 1836) (central Colombia) * ''P. e. emilius'' Constantino, 1999 (western Colombia) * ''P. e. mycale'' (Godman & Salvin, 1890) (

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

to northern Colombia) * ''P. e. mylotes'' (H.W. Bates, 1861) (southern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

) * ''P. e. timias'' (Gray,

853 __NOTOC__ Year 853 ( DCCCLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * May 22 – A Byzantine fleet (85 ships and 5,000 men) sacks and destroys the port city of Damietta, lo ...

(western

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

) Pink-checked cattleheart (Parides eurimedes timias) male Cundinamarca.jpg, male ''P. e. timias''
Colombia Pink-checked cattleheart (Parides eurimedes timias) male underside Cundinamarca.jpg, male ''P. e. timias''
Colombia Pink-checked cattleheart (Parides eurimedes timias) male in flight Cundinamarca.jpg, male ''P. e. timias''
Colombia True cattleheart (Parides eurimedes mycale) male.jpg, male ''P. e. mycale''
Panama

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

measures . ''P. e. mylotes'' is black with both sexes having a red patch on the dorsal hindwing. The dorsal forewing of the male has a triangular green patch. The female has a white patch on the dorsal forewing. A full description (as ''P. arcas'' and ''P.timias'') is provided by Rothschild, W. and Jordan, K. (1906)

Distribution and habitat

''P. eurimedes'' is found in the

Neotropical realm The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...

from Mexico to northern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, where it is commonly found in tropical forests.

Life cycle

The purple-brown

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

is spotted with black. A white lateral stripe is found on each side of the body. The

chrysalis A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages the ...

is pale yellow green. Host plants include '' Aristolochia grandiflora'', '' A. nummularfolia'', '' A. odoratissima'', '' A. pilosa'', and '' A. tonduzii''.

Taxonomy

''Parides eurimedes'' is a member of the ''aeneas''

species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

Edwin Möhn, 2007 ''Butterflies of the World'', Part 26: Papilionidae XIII. ''Parides'' Verlag Goecke & Evers Verlag Goecke & Evers The members are *''

Parides aeneas ''Parides aeneas'' is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae. It is found in the Neotropical realm. The larva feeds on '' Aristolochia'' ''burchelli'' and ''A. barbata'' Subspecies *''P. a. aeneas'' Guianas, Surinam *''P. a. bolivar' ...

'' *'' Parides aglaope'' *''

Parides burchellanus ''Parides burchellanus'' is a species of swallowtail butterfly (family Papilionidae). It is endemic to Brazil. It is one of only two butterflies on the IUCN's ''100 Most Endangered Species in the World'', the other being '' Actinote zikani''. ...

'' *''

Parides echemon ''Parides echemon'' is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae. It is found in the Neotropical realm. It is common and not threatened. Subspecies *''P. e. echemon'' Brazil (Pará) *''P. e. ergeteles'' (Gray, 853 Guianas, French Guian ...

'' *''Parides eurimedes'' *''

Parides lysander ''Parides lysander'', the Lysander cattleheart, is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae. It is found in the Neotropical realm. The larvae feed on ''Aristolochia'' species including ''Aristolochia huberiana, A. huberiana'', ''Aristol ...

'' – Lysander cattleheart *''

Parides neophilus ''Parides neophilus'', the spear-winged cattleheart, is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae. It is found in the Neotropical realm. The larvae feed on '' Aristolochia trilobata'' and '' Aristolochia colombiana''. Subspecies *''P. ...

'' – spear-winged cattleheart *''

Parides orellana ''Parides orellana'' is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae. It is found in the Neotropical realm. (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil (Amazonas)). The larvae possibly feed on '' Aristolochia barbata''. Description from Se ...

'' *''

Parides panthonus ''Parides panthonus'', the panthonus cattleheart, is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. It is found in the Guianas and Suriname. Subspecies *''P. p. panthonus'' (Suriname, the Guianas) *''P. p. barbotini'' Brévignon, 1998 (eastern French G ...

'' – panthonus cattleheart *''

Parides tros ''Parides tros'' is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae. It is found in the Neotropical realm where it is endemic to Brazil. The larva feeds on ''Aristolochia'' species including '' A. rumicifolia'', '' A. cynanchifolia'' (''P. t. ...

'' *''

Parides zacynthus ''Parides zacynthus'' is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae. It is found in the Neotropical realm where it is endemic to Eastern Brazil. The larvae feed on ''Aristolochia'' species (including ''Aristolochia macroura'', ''Aristolo ...

Subspecies

Description

Distribution and habitat

Life cycle

Taxonomy

References

Further reading