The Scarce Hispaniolan Swallowtail has always been scarce, so it causes less concern than Schaus' Swallowtail's scarcity does. It is still considered scarce enough to be somewhat endangered. It lives in only a few places, including a nature park in the Dominican Republic where it's an attraction. It has been called the Haitian Swallowtail but is known to live in only one, rather vulnerable, field on that side of the island. Relatively little has been written about this species, and many sources still call it Papilio rather than Heraclides.
Photo by Zowiezo, Valverde, D.R., October. It also flies in July, so there may be two or more generations each year.
Aristor or Arestor was the name of two minor characters in ancient Greek literature. If spelled "Aristor" the name can be associated with the word aristos, meaning "best." If spelled "Arestor" it may be connected with Ares, the spirit of War, and translated as "ruler, controller," or "avenger."
For the few butterflies that have been caught and closely examined, females look similar to males, slightly larger and warier. Wingspans are about four inches across. Nothing is known for sure about the early stages. Adult butterflies like to sip nectar from colorful tropical flowers. Wings can fade from black and yellow to brown and tan.
People seem cautious about even photographing this butterfly because they don't want to make it more rare than it already is. For a long time there was only one museum specimen in Europe--and then it was destroyed. INaturalist has other photos..of the same butterfly shown above, pollinating the same flower bush; what I ganked was the clearest image.
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