Parides gundlachianus

Parides gundlachianus, the Cuban cattleheart, is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae. It is an endemic species found only in Cuba. The name honours the Cuban naturalist Juan Gundlach.

Cuban cattleheart
in Honrath, 1886 Neue Rhopalocera Berl. ent. Z. figure 5 bottom right
Conservation status
Near Threatened  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Genus:	Parides
Species:	P. gundlachianus
Binomial name
Parides gundlachianus (C. & R. Felder, 1864) [1]
Synonyms
Papilio gundlachianus C. & R. Felder, 1864 Papilio columbus Herrich-Schäffer, 1862 Papilio grotei Blake, 1865 Papilio gundlachianus f. unipunctus Rousseau-Decelle, 1943 Papilio gundlachianus f. pauperimus Rousseau-Decelle, 1943 Battus gundlachianus var. calzadillae Torre, 1971

It is the brightest-coloured American swallowtail, and may be recognised by the brilliant blue bands on the forewing. The ground colour is brown to black. The upperside forewing has a blue to green median band and possibly one to two spots close to the apex. The hindwings have a long tail and on either side two indentations like short tails. The upperside hindwing has a broad red submarginal band. The underside (verso) is brown The wingspan is 7–8 cm A full description is provided by Rothschild, W. and Jordan, K. (1906)^[2]

The dark ash-grey larva is striped longitudinally, the head and thoracic legs are black; the black longitudinal stripes in part margined with white; the anterior and posterior segments bear long pointed tubercles which are partly white.

Occurs in the mountainous eastern part of the island, especially near the coast, where it is met with on flowers, and sometimes also drinking at pools.^[3] The host plants of its caterpillar are Aristolochia

• 
  ''Parides gundlachianus'' in a plate from ''Reise der Österreichischen Fregatte Novara'' - at bottom right

Subspecies

• Parides gundlachianus gundlachianus (eastern Cuba)
• Parides gundlachianus alayoi Hernández, Alayón & Smith, 1995 (western Cuba) ^[4]

Taxonomy

Parides gundlachianus is a member of the ascanius species group ("Fringe-spots white. Hindwing with submarginal spots and usnally also diseal spots or dots, or a discal band; mostly with tail") A quadrate whitish spot in space 2 of the forewings is quite peculiar of the ascanius group^[5][6]

The members are

• Parides agavus (Drury, 1782)
• Parides alopius (Godman & Salvin, [1890])
• Parides ascanius (Cramer, [1775])
• Parides bunichus (Hübner, [1821])
• Parides gundlachianus (C. & R. Felder, 1864)
• Parides montezuma (Westwood, 1842)
• Parides phalaecus (Hewitson, 1869)
• Parides photinus (Doubleday, 1844)
• Parides proneus (Hübner, [1831])

Status

Found only in forests in Cuba and not rare but requiring monitoring.^[7]

Etymology

The specific epithet honours the Cuban naturalist Juan Gundlach.

See also

• List of Lepidoptera of Cuba