Once again, the genus name for this week's butterfly has changed while the species name stayed the same. One of the "Rose" Swallowtails that were reclassified from Papilio to Atrophaneura to Pachliopta, it's always been given the species name mariae; Maria's Rose, or Rose of the Seas.
In flight it could almost be accused of trying to look like a cat, at least to suggest that idea to watching birds...
Relatively little has been written about P. mariae, perhaps because, while it would certainly stand out in North America, in the Philippines it's just another Rose Swallowtail. There are a couple dozen species that can all be described in the same words:
* Adult butterflies are large, with wingspans three to six inches
* Bodies are black and red, the red color sometimes fading to pink, orange, or yellowish white
* Wings are bsically black or faded black
* Forewings have black or faded black bars outlining the veins, often with white, light gray, or buff in between
* Hindwings have spots in red, white, or shades of pink, orange, and cream faded from red or white
* How faded the colors of living butterflies look is an individual variation, with fading more common and conspicuous in some species than in others;
* Flight behavior shows that the wings are stronger and better coordinated than most butterflies' wings; hind wings can move independently of forewings, giving these butterflies special "gaits" and moves
* In most, not all, species gender differences are visible at least to experts; females generally are larger and lighter-colored than males
* The primary food plant is a vine in the genus Aristolochia
* Eggs are laid by ones, usually on a new young leaf, spaced widely enough that the caterpillars don't defoliate their food plant
* Eggs have a round shape. their surfaces usually showing droplets of aristolochic acid
* Caterpillars show some mixture of red, black, and white pigmentation, a product of digestion of their food plant; in the caterpillar these colors often blur together into shades of brown or aubergine color, though at some stages in some species separate areas of color are visible
* Most caterpillars have a white "belt" stripe, the shape, position, and definition of which varies only slightly between species
* Caterpillars show many bumps and sometimes bristling hairs on the upper surface
* Caterpillars are only slightly humpbacked, with smaller osmeteria than some other Swallowtail caterpillars have, and are slow to display their osmeteria
* Pupae have a wide, flat shape and irregular surface that apparently mimics a dead leaf
* At all stages of life these species have distinct odors; which butterflies probably use to recognize one another by sex and species; humans notice many but not all of their scents
This photo is a .webp file rather than a .jpg, so it may not display in some browsers. If you're not seeing a clear picture of a vividly colored butterfly, you may want to visit the PhilippineLepidopt site some time when you're using a newer computer; it has clear pictures of all three subspecies of mariae and of several other tropical swallowtails and birdwings. (Birdwings are in the swallowtail family, too. They are huge. Their species names come further along in the alphabet after Atrophaneura. This web site will get to them in due time.)
Mariae is one of the species in this group. Possibly by chance, and partly because some of the other Red-Bodied Swallowtail species have special traits that attract attention, so far mariae doesn't seem to be the species anyone has chosen for special attention. Many Google hits for this species are links to lists of the different Red-Bodied Swallowtails, often diagramming the wing spots to show how the species can be identified. There really is a consistent correlation between wing spot patterns and the microscopic, but crucial, differences in body shape that produce distinct species. It is not always possible to identify an individual with one wing spot pattern or another, though often it is. Individual swallowtails vary.
is a typical illustration of P. mariae and other swallowtails with similar wing spot patterns.
(Is that one really mariae? They're supposed to have tails but in real life swallowtails often lose a tail; the right hind wing does seem to have its tail. In real life, also, butterfly pictures also get mislabelled...)
Native to the Philippines, it has a wingspan a little over four inches, and is considered neither rare nor endangered. At http://scinet.science.ph/union/Downloads/STII-S-542.29_A2533-17-27_115646.pdf Julian Jumalon described his experience rearing P. mariae and what he knew as Papilio almae, now considered a subspecies of Pachliopta mariae, in captivity; he said the caterpillars grew only about two inches long before pupating, and their white "belts" consisted of two thin stripes rather than one thick one. He used "sienna" and even "siennish" to describe shades of brown in the ranges produced by earth pigment from Siena, Italy, meaning a yellowish brown when the clay is "raw" and a reddish brown when it has been "burnt." Rose Swallowtail caterpillars often look reddish brown, and the pupae look yellowish brown.
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