This week's butterfly, Heraclides astyalus, is well enough known to have an English name: the Broad-Banded Swallowtail. It also has a Spanish name, limonera chica, the Little Lemon/Lime Dealer. North Americans don't usually see it as a small butterfly--we're more likely to mistake it for our "Giant" Swallowtail, if we see it at all--but some of the Heraclides species are bigger. Its wingspread is typically four inches or more--sometimes closer to five inches (12cm). When the wings are spread wide they often show what look like the shadow outline of a smaller, plainer set of wings. Some of its many local nicknames identify it as a smaller relative of H. thoas.
Male drinking buddies at a puddle. Photo Par Peterwchen — Travail personnel, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99803405 .
This species has been given many names. Apart from having been reclassified from the genus Papilio to the genus Heraclides, individuals have been recorded as species lycophron, mentor, pirithous, oebalus, drepanon, pallas, hozaus,theophron, iraidan, taini, and phanias, most of which names are now considered synonyms. Astyalus or Astyalos, the literary character scientists are currently agreeing to commemorate in this species' name, was a Trojan soldier in the Iliad.
Dark female photographed at the Ultimate Noah's Ark site, whose "Butterflies of Brazil" page is too good to miss, despite some errors in translation: http://www.aultimaarcadenoe.com.br/butterflies-of-brazil/
While some populations may be endangered, the species as a whole is too widely distributed to appear to be in much danger. It can occasionally even become a nuisance, though it seldom does. It can adapt to suburban living conditions; it's found in South American cities.
The band of spots across the underside of the hind wings is "diagnostic" for identifying this species and subspecies. Photo from Gagea on Wikipedia.
As with other Swallowtails, colors can vary. Females can look black or blackish above. Males usually have a broad band of yellow across their upper wings, with borders of black or dark brown; sometimes they are almost all yellow, above and below.
Yellow male from Paraguay photographed by Paul Smith, in April, for Faunaparaguay.com.
Males typically have longer "swallow tails" on their hind wings than females have. Males' bodies are usually black above and yellow on the sides; females' are black. Underwings are yellow with black or dark brown markings.
Photo at Ecency.com.
Dark females can fade and look gray, like the Red-Bodied Swallowtails.
Photo by David Sala.
Hind wings have scalloped edges and can look fringed.
In some lights they can even be seen as "buff and cream," and some specimens have faded to that color combination. Photo from Panamabiota.org.
Map of the sources of photos for this species in GBIF's huge gallery. Texas to Baja to Peru to Brazil to Trinidad and all points between.
It flies in South America, near the equator. Much of what's been published about these butterflies is written in Spanish or Portuguese. However, the butterflies sometimes visit the Southwestern States and Caribbean islands, and as they catch the eye wherever they go, documents about them are also written in French, German, Dutch, and English. While scientific literature has traditionally been written in a style that sounds awkward in English, this was done to make translation easy; computer translation software is more reliable in translating science documents than in translating most other things.
Heraclides astyalus has also been confused with Byasa alcinous; there is some resemblance. Byasa alcinous has a red body and, typically, black wings, but the wings can fade, become translucent, and admit enough bright sunlight that it can look yellow in the sun. To reduce confusion, instead of placing photos side by side for comparison this web site will direct everyone to our study of Byasa alcinous:
Like the Asian Red-Bodied Swallowtails, which include the genus Byasa, Heraclides astyalus are large and can move their fore and hind wings separately. But they're not red-bodied.
Photo by Lela Cappelli, Brazil.
H. astyalus can easily be confused with H. thoas and H. androgeus, which fly in the same countries.It has been suspected of hybridizing with H. torquatus and producing offspring that have been identified as a separate speries, H. garleppi, which does not appear on most lists.
This butterfly's habitat does not really have winter, and the butterflies can fly at any time of year, but they are most active in June and July. Another period of high activity occurs in October, suggesting that there may be two main generations each year.
Videos of these butterflies are available free of charge as meditation and relaxation aids. Here they're the next to largest butterflies in a group of drinking buddies that include other Heraclides, some Eurytides, Clearwings, Sulphurs, and other smaller species in Bolivia. If this long slow-motion video doesn't put you either into sleep or into an alpha-wave meditative state, you have a task to finish.
The species is common in most of its habitat, and males spend enough time at mud puddles to be easily photographed. Ian Fraser includes a puddle party in this photo essay about animals that tend to be attracted to mud, beginning with gorgeous tropical birds:
Male butterflies of many species gather at puddles, often favoring salty or nasty puddles, and sit around in groups, drinking. Jorge J. Restrepos observed closely what male butterflies do at these puddle parties. They really do function as part of the kidneys of our planet. They slurp up salty, sometimes oily, or polluted liquid as fast as they can go and then piddle out relatively clean water. The butterflies actually crave the mineral salts, especially sodium and nitrogen; males crave them more because, during the mating process, males transfer part of their supply of minerals to females, allowing the females to focus on sipping sweeter, higher-calorie nectar. (Males sip nectar, too, and both sexes also drink plain water.)
Humans don't usually notice butterflies' or moths' odors. Butterflies and moths do; they can smell each other literally half a mile away. When males have ingested enough minerals they may go out looking for females. Female Swallowtails, however, usually emerge from their pupal shells full of eggs and eager to mate and start offloading those eggs, while males usually spend a few days drinking saltwater first. As a result, eager female Swallowtails often gather around the edges of the males' puddle parties ("leks"), checking out males and approaching those who seem about ready to mate. (They may be able to see changes in the males' iridescent blue-green-black spots, and probably also smell changes in their scents, that help them identify males who are and are not ready.) About all butterflies seem to want in a mate is fertility; they don't mate for life, after all. After a few minutes females flit off to the important business of placing eggs, and males go back to their puddles, where they may never be approached again, but they never know.
We note also that, although Restrepos is not a lepidopterist and didn't recognize his sighting as a male butterfly even when the female approached and they mated, he recognized the female as "the same kind." Humans usually recognize female Heraclides astyalus when their wings are black, but male butterflies, having access to scent cues, can recognize the ones whose wings are yellow.
Like the Tiger Swallowtails, this big, bold, thirsty species can be a little too friendly when tourists are dripping with fresh, salty sweat.
Photo from GBIF, which identifies it as having been taken in Brazil in October. "Older" females are more likely to drink salty liquids on their own; younger ones can usually afford to sip only nectar and fresh water, waiting to get their mineral salts from their mates.
There are six subspecies, some better documented than others: H.a. astyalus, anchicayaensis, bajaensis, hippomedon, pallas, and phanias. Hippomedon was described as having rounder hind wings and shorter "tails." Phanias has hind wings "more strongly dentate," and averages larger than hippomedon. Pallas also has hind wings "strongly dentate" with the tail sometimes only a little longer than the "teeth" of the scalloped edge.
Heraclides astyalus anchicayaensis has been named rather recently. Some think it should be counted as a separate species, H. anchicayaensis. Lewis says it looks similar to H. astyalus astyalus but the males' upper wings are missing a spot that astyalus has; the females look alike. If anything anchicayaensis may be slightly larger. The name commemorates the Anchicaya river in Colombia. The last A gets the accent so the Latin name would presumably be an-chi-ca-YAH-ensis...but people pronounce Latin as they choose. The way Julius Caesar said his name, or title, became the words "Kaiser" and "Czar," but Italians now say "Cesare" differently and the English have always thought of old Julius as a bit of a seizer of power...so there we are.
Photo by Indianacristo, September, Colombia. This is the only photo I found for anchicayaensis.
Heraclides astyalus astyalus is the "nominate," perhaps most common, subspecies found across Central and northern South America. The "tails" are sometimes spatulate, widening at the tips, and can show yellow spots on the tips, as if mimicking Heraclides thoas.
Photo from Borboletas do Brasil.
Photo from Wikiborboleta.com, also from Brazil, by Joao Amarildo Ranguetti.
Photo by Eulogia Lopez, May, Argentina. Do biochemical changes make it easier for this old, damaged male to look "old and gray"?
Some authorities still think pallas and bajaensis should be classified as a separate species, listing bajaensis as a subspecies of pallas. Bajaensis looks, to me, as if it were trying to fit in with other butterflies in the US and Mexico. The name, of course, celebrates Baja California. The males seem to be mimicking Heraclides cresphontes:
Photo by Mayibrago, May, Michoacan.
While the females seem to be part of that group of butterflies that all seem to be imitating Battus philenor:
Photo by Francisco3, August, Mazatlan. She does look a bit like Battus philenor, doesn't she? Apart from being almost twice the size...
"Oh, the bird that ate me was very sick! I think it died! Don't I smell disgusting?" Photo by Marcopolo Amarillas, July, Sinaloa.
Heraclides astyalus hippomedon with its "rounder" wings. Hippomedon was an ancient Greek warlord.
Photo by Will & Gill Carter for ButterfliesOfAmerica.com.
Female with the tail only a little longer than the teeth from Faunayfloradelargentinanativa.blogspot.com.
H.a. pallas is listed as Heraclides pallas pallas at INaturalist. Pallas was a sort of surname or title given to Athena. Poe, in "The Raven," probably had a replica of an ancient image of Athena in mind when he referred to a "pallid bust of Pallas." In some Greek and Roman literature, however, Pallas was a friend of Athena--sometimes described as female, sometimes as male--whom she inadvertently killed while play-fighting with spears. She was said to have added her friend's name to hers as a display of mourning. Some think the meaning of this story was that Pallas was the god or goddess of a rival cult whom the cult of Athena overpowered. Anyway, the butterflies' distinctive features include very short tails.
Photo by Aztekium, August, Santiago.
She's already lost one of her tails and she doesn't seem to miss it. Photo by Eolson, June, Nicaragua.
Photo by Eolson, June, Nicaragua. Note the eye-like spots on the sides of the hump. Someone called a baby bajaensis an "alligator caterpillar." Birds seeing the eye spots and leglike stripes can think it's a baby alligator if they want to.
Photo by Eolson, June, Nicaragua.
H.a. phanias, with hind wings "more strongly dentate" than other subspecies, photographed in Colombia. Phanias, or Phaenias or Phainias, was a Greek writer, a commentator on Aristotle.
Photo by Catalina Tong for Noreste.eu.
Photo by Tommy Andriollo, October, Ecuador.
For all subspecies of astyalus eggs are little yellow beads laid on citrus tree leaves. These butterflies usually seem to prefer wild species, but will accept tame ones. Again, mixed plantings help prevent population irruptions that can make the species a nuisance.
Caterpillars have been described as similar to Heraclides thoas but "more strongly marmorated." If there are consistent differences among subspecies, they've not been documented. This little one shows no interest in the eggshell beside it...
From GBIF, taken in August in Brazil.
They have osmeteria but don't seem eager to display them. Gasperinbio (October, Brazil) took six photos of this caterpillar, holding and moving the leaf on which it was feeding. The caterpillar held still, pretending to be the dropping of a large sick bird, not putting out its "stink horns."
Jhonatansantos, however, managed to annoy this one. (Also October, also Brazil.)
Some sources also mention that these caterpillars can be yellower than thoas caterpillars, or not. Markings can vary even among litter mates, like these two from Brazil. Caterpillars are large, in proportion to the butterflies they will become, and adhere to the "try to look like droppings from a sick bird" design principle.
Is this H.a. astyalus caterpillar big enough to convince birds that it's two small animals? Photo by Lindolfo Vieira Souto, of Brazil, for Wikiborboleta.com. Older caterpillars' markings can include two or even more "tiny faces."
Pupae are also compared with those of H. thoas (which is bigger) but have a sharper branchlike projection on top.
