''Papilio palamedes'', the Palamedes swallowtail or laurel swallowtail, is a North American

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

in the family

Papilionidae Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includes the larges ...

Description

The upperside of the wings is blackish brown with both wings having a yellow postmedian band and a yellow submarginal band.Jim P. Brock and Kenn Kaufman (2003). ''Butterflies of North America''. Houghton Mifflin, New York, NY. There is a yellow bar at the end of the forewing cell. The underside of the wings is black with the forewing having a yellow postmedian band and a yellow submarginal band. The hindwing has a few colored bands; the first being cream; the second, orange; the third, blue; and the fourth, orange.Rick Cech and Guy Tudor (2005). ''Butterflies of the East Coast''. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. There is a yellow streak on the inner margin of the hindwing which runs parallel to the body. The wingspan ranges from to inches (11 to 13 cm)."Palamedes Swallowtail

accessed on May 13, 2009

Habitat

This species may be found in habitats such as cypress swamplands, coastal swamplands, wet riparian forests, bay forests, and savannas in the southeastern United States and northeastern Mexico.James A. Scott (1986). ''The Butterflies of North America''. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

Flight

The Palamedes swallowtail is encountered from May to October in southeastern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and from March to December in more southern regions. In Mexico it is represented by subspecies ''P. p. leontis'' Rothschild & Jordan, 1906.

Life cycle

Males seek females by patrolling near forest edges and forest openings. In courtship, the male and female will fly about a foot apart, slowly flying together in unison. The male will then fly above and behind the female to disperse his

pheromones A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

and he will continue to do this until the female decides to mate with him. Females lay their pale greenish-yellow

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

singly on host plant leaves. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

is green with two false eyespots on the

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the cre ...

. It has a few blue spots on the first

abdominal The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...

segment to the eighth segment. It also lives in a leaf shelter.Thomas J. Allen, Jim P. Brock, Jeffrey Glassberg (2005). ''Caterpillars in the Field and Garden''. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. David L. Wagner (2005). ''Caterpillars of Eastern North America''. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. The larva is almost identical to the

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

of the spicebush swallowtail (''

Papilio troilus ''Papilio troilus'', the spicebush swallowtail or green-clouded butterfly, is a common black swallowtail butterfly found in North America."Simply Butterflies," Accessed March 17, 2011, http://www.simplybutterflies.com/Backyard_Butterflies.html It ...

'', except the spicebush swallowtail larva has larger false eyes, larger blue spots, and different host plant preferences.) However, in the coastal Southeast, a subspecies of the spicebush swallowtail ''P. t. ilioneus'' shares the redbay (''

Persea borbonia ''Persea borbonia'' or redbay is a small, evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae), native to the southeastern United States. It belongs to the genus '' Persea'', a group of evergreen trees including bays and the avocado. ''Persea borbonia ...

'') as a host plant. The green

chrysalis A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

has a whitish lateral stripe edged with brown above and has two horns on the head. The chrysalis hibernates. The Palamedes swallowtail has two or three

brood Brood may refer to: Nature * Brood, a collective term for offspring * Brooding, the incubation of bird eggs by their parents * Bee brood, the young of a beehive * Individual broods of North American Periodical Cicadas: ** Brood X, the largest bro ...

s per year.

Host plants

* Redbay, ''

'' * Swampbay, ''

Persea palustris ''Persea palustris'', also known as swamp bay or swampbay, is a small tree or shrub found throughout the Southeastern United States and the Bahamas, with much of its range overlapping with that of its relative ''Persea borbonia''. It is generally ...

'' * White sassafras, ''

Sassafras albidum ''Sassafras albidum'' (sassafras, white sassafras, red sassafras, or silky sassafras) is a species of ''Sassafras'' native to eastern North America, from southern Maine and southern Ontario west to Iowa, and south to central Florida and eastern T ...

References

External links

Palamedes swallowtail
on the UF /

IFAS IFAS may refer: * Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences * Integrated Fixed-Film Activated Sludge, a sewage treatment process * International French adjectival system In rock climbing, mountaineering, and other climbing disciplines, clim ...

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Naturhistorisches Museum Wien The Natural History Museum Vienna (german: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) is a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most important natural history museums worldwide. The NHM Vienna is one of the largest museum ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q148301 Butterflies of North America palamedes Butterflies described in 1773 Taxa named by Dru Drury