''Papilio machaonides'', the machaonides swallowtail, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

swallowtail butterfly 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 large ...

from the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Papilio ''Papilio'' is a genus in the swallowtail butterfly family, Papilionidae, as well as the only representative of the tribe Papilionini. The word ''papilio'' is Latin for butterfly. It includes the common yellow swallowtail (''Papilio machaon''), ...

'' that is found in

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

and is also thought to inhabit the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

Description

''Papilio machaonides'' has been described as having 'slow and floppy' flight. The discal band of the forewing is interrupted, the posterior part contiguous with the cell-spot, forming an oblique band.Jordan, K. , in Seitz, A. ( 1907) . The Macrolepidoptera of the World. 5: The Macrolepidoptera of the American faunistic region. Papilionidae 1-45

Status

It is a very common butterfly throughout Hispaniola, occurring from sea-level to high elevation. It is most commonly seen in July and August.

Philately

The butterfly appeared on a Haitian 1969 0.25

gourde The gourde () or goud () is the currency of Haiti. Its ISO 4217 code is HTG and it is divided into 100 ''centimes'' (French) or ''santim'' (Creole). The word "gourde" is a French cognate for the Spanish term "gordo", from the "pesos gordos ...

stamp. It was in the

Michel catalog The Michel catalog (''MICHEL-Briefmarken-Katalog'') is the largest and best-known stamp catalog in the German-speaking world. First published in 1910, it has become an important reference work for philately, with information not available in t ...

1094.

References

*Lewis, H. L., 1974 ''Butterflies of the World'' Page 25, figure 8 machaonides Butterflies described in 1796 Taxa named by Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper Insects of the Dominican Republic Insects of Haiti {{Papilionidae-stub