Papilio andraemon

Papilio andraemon, the Bahaman swallowtail, is a swallowtail butterfly of the subfamily Papilioninae. It is found on the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. It is a rare stray or temporary colonist of the Florida Keys or the mainland near Miami.

Papilio andraemon
P. a. andraemon, Jamaica
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Genus:	Papilio
Species:	P. andraemon
Binomial name
Papilio andraemon (Hübner, [1823])
Synonyms
Heraclides andraemon Hübner, [1823]

In flight

The wingspan is 96–102 millimetres (3.8–4.0 in). On the obverse the wings are black. The forewings have a pale yellow band and a thin band of the same colour in the wing cell. The hindwings are extended by long thin tails slightly widened at the tip and bear a pale yellow band which extends that of the forewing, submarginal yellow and orange lunules, a brick red ocellus surmounted by an iridescent blue lunule in the anal angle and diffuse iridescent blue lunules in the submarginal part. On the reverse, the wings bear the same patterns in lighter colours, the submarginal blue lunules are more numerous and more marked, the hind wings also bear a reddish macula in the submarginal part. The body is pale yellow and the top is black. Adults are on wing from April to October (December in Jamaica) in three generations per year.

The larvae feed on various species in the family Rutaceae, including Citrus, Ruta and Zanthoxylum species.

Subspecies

• Papilio andraemon andraemon (Florida, Cuba, Jamaica, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac (Cayman Islands))
• Papilio andraemon bonhotei Sharpe, 1900 (Bahamas)
• Papilio andraemon tailori Rothschild & Jordan, 1906 (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands)

See also

• List of butterflies of Jamaica

Further reading

• Lewis, H. L., 1974 Butterflies of the World ISBN 0-245-52097-X Page 24, figure 10
• F. Martin Brown and Bernard Heineman, Jamaica and its Butterflies (E. W. Classey, London 1972), plate VIII
• R. R. Askew and P. A. van B. Stafford, Butterflies of the Cayman Islands (Apollo Books, Stenstrup 2008) ISBN 978-87-88757-85-9, pp. 110–113

External links

• Collins, N. Mark; Morris, Michael G. (1985). Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World: The IUCN Red Data Book. Gland & Cambridge: IUCN. ISBN 978-2-88032-603-6 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
• Nearctica
• Butterflycorner Images from Naturhistorisches Museum Wien
• Data related to Papilio andraemon at Wikispecies
• Media related to Papilio andraemon at Wikimedia Commons