This week's butterfly has a large collection of names. It's the Little Widow, viuvinha, because females often have black wings. It's the Lemon Dealer with Tails, limonera coluda, because caterpillars have been known to climb on--or, admit it, eat--citrus fruit. It's the Missionary, misionera, for unclear reasons probably having to do with its having been found near a mission. In recent scientific literature it's Heraclides hectorides (or Papilio hectorides) because the Swallowtail butterflies were traditionally named after characters in literature, so in English, Spanish, or Portuguese it's the Hectorides Swallowtail, or sometimes Hector's Swallowtail. In earlier scientific literature it was given ten, count them, ten other names, including melania. ("Melania" means "dressed in black" and was the title given to Demeter, Mother Earth, in winter when fields showed rich black soil. This title still is sometimes given to black-winged female hectorides.)
Among the Giant Swallowtails Heraclides hectorides is one of the smaller species, its 3 to 4" wingspan making it about the same size as our Monarchs and Tiger Swallowtails. In the Iliad Hector was a young soldier whose son was only a child. The name may also have been chosen because among other species, such as Heraclides anchisiades, this butterfly's rose-pink to red spots remind people of Atrophaneura hector. However, hectorides' red spots tend to form bands rather than rosettes.
More white or yellow is visible on the underside.
Photo from butterfliesofbrazil.com.
Males have black wings with a continuous white stripe that often appears to form a straight white dash across the butterfly.
Photos from FaunaParaguay.com. One of the names proposed for this form was argentus, "silver." However, some individuals' band of light color is bright light yellow rather than silvery white.
Females can have a partial white stripe (the variant form Catamelas, "downward black," with black color covering the upper part of the wings)...
Photo from WikiBorboleta, Antonio Carlos F. Meira, Sao Paul.
or no white stripe, which qualifies them to be described as the form Melania...
Photo from WikiBorboleta, Frank Thomas Sautter, Santa Maria.
or a thin vestige of a white stripe, which has no special name, but is typical.
Photo by Zamoner_Maristela, Brazil, February. (Behind her, facing her around a tree, is her mate; a series of less clear photos at INaturalist document that the researcher probably found the female, who was well camouflaged as a shadow, by following a male. That's also typical for dark tropical Swallowtails.)
They are common in the central and southern parts of South America. They are not usually pests on citrus trees; they are more likely to eat native plants in the laurel family, or wild citrus-type trees in the genus Zanthoxylum, or even plants in the genus Piper. They are familiar and widely documented.
A favorite host tree is tembetari, also known as Zanthoxylon rhoifolium. This close relative of the Caribbean/Floridian "shake hand tree" has a bare trunk covered in thorns, no doubt discouraging to many predators, which may make it more attractive to butterflies. At least five Heraclides speies and two Marpesia butterflies favor tembetari as a host plant. Photo from the Argentina Nativa Blogspot, which has more information about the tree:
Some researchers believe the butterflies are trending in the direction of choosing to eat pepper leaves when they can, more than they used to do in the past, because fewer of their predators (small and large) can tolerate the amides in pepper leaves. More pepper in the diet means greater toxicity. More toxicity in any individual caterpillar a bird may eat means more security for others of the species.
Maintaining enough of their native host plants to discourage these caterpillars from munching on citrus trees, which are not their favorite food anyway, may be the key to keeping these pretty butterflies from becoming agricultural pests.
Like other big tropical Swallowtails, they can move the fore and hind wings separately. Photo from WikiBorboleta, supplied by Frederico Blanchado, Sao Paulo.
As in so many Swallowtail species, the males hang out at puddles, not avoiding males of their own or other species. They may buddy up with Heraclides or join flocks of smaller butterflies. Adult Heraclides hectorides generally seem to like to spread themselves out, keeping abundant food resources available for all. From a survival point of view, the species of other participants at a puddle party doesn't matter; when they all fly up in a predator-confusing cloud, each individual's chance of survival increases.
Photo by Cactusauria, Argentina, September.
However, especially rich sources of mineral salts can attract flocks of hectorides.
Photo by C4m1/0, Argentina, August. Polluted liquid from dung and carrion is especially rich in the mineral salts the male butterflies need. Male butterflies actually retain minerals, and no doubt bacteria that could survive and attack a warm-blooded body, while returning cleaner water to the Earth. Their role as composters is ecologically important--especially since, unlike many smaller flies, they have no instinct to rush directly from something disgusting to something humans are about to eat. Females can usually afford not to drink mineral salts since they receive minerals from the males during the mating process.
Photo by Kbraitamaral, Brazil, December. Male Swallowtails are sometimes attracted to the mineral salts in human sweat. Considering the other sources of mineral salts in their diet, male Swallowtails' licking humans' skin may seem a little too friendly. Females, who normally sip only flower nectar and fresh water, almost never touch human skin.
Females may visit a puddle party to pick up males, or the males may come to them. They may mate back to back, or face to face around a twig.
Photo by Rubelio, Brazil.
Females spend most of their time finding suitable places to lay eggs. They don't seem to require very fresh new leaves.
And they may place small groups of eggs on the same leaf.
Both photos by Alessandradalia, Brazil (Sao Paulo), September.
Caterpillars are somewhat gregarious; photos like this one don't make it clear whether siblings travel in groups for safety, or individual caterpillars merely find their way to the same fresh and juicy leaves.
Photo from WikiBorboleta, Frank Thomas Sautter, Curitiba.
Photo by Monsores_Diego, Brazil, March. These three seem to sense that by huddling together they look like an even more pathological, painful bird dropping. Message to predators: "Something already ate me, and was it ever sorry!"
Photo by Jhonatansantos, who does not disclose whether this photo documents a caterpillar mob scene in the real world, or one artificially produced by researchers rearing several broods in one garden. A large group of these big, hungry caterpillars can of course strip a host plant bare.
Observers describe them eating their way through their first four skins in about three days per instar, then spending five to twelve days in the fifth "mature" caterpillar skin. Some individuals molt into a sixth caterpillar skin before pupation; any benefit to the individuals or the species in this is unknown. Google didn't find an authoritative statement about their size range, but from the photo and video evidence they seem to grow only two or three inches long.
These three seem to be maturing as a group...
Both photos by Maria Kubica, Campina Grande do Sul. A set of four photos documenting one individual's pupation and eclosion is available from this researcher at
Chrysalides are realistically camouflaged as twigs, with what look like stubs, scars, buds, even split ends of bark. Photo by Zamoner_Maristela, Brazil, December.
The teneral butterfly's white band iridesces bluish, and some photos of this species show individuals shimmering pale blue or apple-green in some lights.
There's a video with a speeded-up time-lapse sequence showing a male butterfly's eclosion at
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