''Papilio rogeri'', the pink-spotted swallowtail, is a

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 ...

of 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 ...

(swallowtails). It is found in central and southern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. One stray has been reported from the lower

Rio Grande Valley The Lower Rio Grande Valley ( es, Valle del Río Grande), commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley or locally as the Valley or RGV, is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth. The ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, United States.

Description

Forewing lighter in color from the apex of the cell outwards, the dark basal area rounded distally; hindwing with suggestion of a small tail; some red spots on the disc, in two separate rows, in the male the proximal spots very small, usually only indicated; in the female all the spots larger than in the male.Jordan, K.; in Seitz, A. (1907). The Macrolepidoptera of the World. 5: The Macrolepidoptera of the American faunistic region. Papilionidae 1-45 The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is 84–95 mm.

Biology

Adults are on wing from February to October in Mexico and in April in southern Texas. The larvae feed on

Rutaceae The Rutaceae is a family, commonly known as the rueRUTACEAE
in BoDD – Botanical Derm ...

species. Adults feed on flower nectar.

Subspecies

*''Papilio rogeri rogeri'' – (Mexico) *''Papilio rogeri pharnaces'' Doubleday, 1846 – (Mexico) More or less distinctly tailed, hindwing with two separated rows of red spots, the proximal spots in the male often very small.

References

*Lewis, H.L. (1974). ''Butterflies of the World'' Page 25, figure 10 (ssp.''pharnaces''

External links

*
Butterflies and Moths of North America
rogeri Papilionidae of South America Butterflies described in 1836 {{papilionidae-stub