Red-bodied swallowtail

This article is about several genera. For the specific species known as red-bodied swallowtail, see Pachliopta polydorus.

Red-bodied swallowtails, or ruby swallowtail (due to the color), are butterflies in the swallowtail family, that belong to the genera Atrophaneura, Byasa, Losaria, or Pachliopta. They are generally found in Asia (Indomalayan realm).

Red-bodied swallowtail
Pachliopta hector
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Subfamily:	Papilioninae
Tribe:	Troidini
Species
About 46; see text
Groups included
Atrophaneura Reakirt, [1865] Byasa Moore, 1882 Losaria Moore, [1902] Pachliopta Reakirt, [1865]
Synonyms
Polydorus Swainson, [1833] Pangerana Moore, 1886 Panosmia Wood-Mason & de Nicéville, 1886 Tros Kirby, 1896 Karanga Moore, [1902] Balignina Moore, [1902]

Collectors have found the red-bodied swallowtails difficult to kill. Pinching the thorax, a method which kills most butterflies, is withstood and only stuns the butterfly temporarily.^{[citation needed]}

Life history

The larvae resemble those of other Troidini. Fleshy spine-like tubercles, often with red tips, line the caterpillars' backs, and their bodies are dark red to brown and velvety black or shades of grey with a pattern of black lines. They feed on species of Aristolochia and Thottea. Chrysalids are camouflaged to look like a dead leaf or twig. They are attached by a girdle and an anal pad. Adults are nectar feeding.

Many species of red-bodied swallowtails show aposematism,^[1] and serve as models for Batesian mimicry. The biology of Pachliopta hector and Pachliopta aristolochiae are well studied.

• 
  Pachliopta hector egg
• 
  Pachliopta aristolochiae larva
• 
  Byasa alcinous pupa

Taxonomy

Species limits may be either narrow (many species - forma and subspecies raised to full or "good" species) or broad (fewer species - rank reduction) see Jürgen Haffer for a discussion.

Genera and species

Plate from Adalbert Seitz's Macrolepidoptera of the World, depicting species now in the genus Atrophaneura

Plate from Seitz's Macrolepidoptera of the World, depicting species now in the genera Losaria and Pachliopta.

Plate from Seitz's Macrolepidoptera of the World, depicting species now in the genus Pachliopta

Listed alphabetically within genera:^[2]

genus: Atrophaneura Reakirt, [1865]^[2] (earlier considered as the nominotypical subgenus of Atrophaneura but now it is a genus without subgenera)^[3]

• Atrophaneura aidoneus (Doubleday, 1845) — lesser batwing
• Atrophaneura dixoni (Grose-Smith, 1900)
• Atrophaneura horishana (Matsumura, 1910) — aurora swallowtail
• Atrophaneura kuehni (Honrath, 1886)
• Atrophaneura luchti (Roepke, 1935)
• Atrophaneura nox (Swainson, 1822) — Malayan batwing
• Atrophaneura priapus (Boisduval, 1836) — Priapus batwing
• Atrophaneura semperi (C. & R. Felder, 1861)
• Atrophaneura schadenbergi (Semper, 1891)^[4]
• Atrophaneura sycorax (Grose-Smith, 1885)
• Atrophaneura varuna (White, 1842) — common batwing
• Atrophaneura zaleucus (Hewitson, [1865])

genus: Byasa Moore, 1882 (earlier considered as subgenus Byasa but now raised to genus level)^[3]

• Byasa adamsoni (Grose-Smith, 1886) — Adamson's rose
• Byasa alcinous (Klug, 1836) — Chinese windmill
• Byasa crassipes (Oberthür, 1893) — black windmill
• Byasa daemonius (Alphéraky, 1895)
• Byasa dasarada (Moore, 1857) — great windmill
• Byasa hedistus (Jordan, 1928)
• Byasa impediens (Rothschild, 1895)
• Byasa laos (Riley & Godfrey, 1921)
• Byasa latreillei (Donovan, 1826) — rose windmill
• Byasa mencius (C. & R. Felder, 1862)
• Byasa nevilli (Wood-Mason, 1882) — Nevill's windmill
• Byasa plutonius (Oberthür, 1876) — Chinese windmill
• Byasa polla (de Nicéville, 1897) — De Niceville's windmill
• Byasa polyeuctes (Doubleday, 1842) — common windmill
• Byasa rhadinus (Jordan, 1928)

genus: Losaria Moore, [1902] (earlier considered as subgenus Losaria but now raised to genus level)^[3]

• Losaria coon (Fabricius, 1793) — common clubtail
• Losaria palu (Martin, 1912) — Palu swallowtail - has been regarded a subspecies of A. coon^[5]
• Losaria rhodifer (Butler, 1876) — Andaman clubtail
• Losaria neptunus (Guérin-Méneville, 1840) — yellow-bodied club-tail or yellow club-tail

genus: Pachliopta Reakirt, [1865] (earlier considered as subgenus Pachliopta but now raised to genus level)^[3]

• Pachliopta adamas (Zinken, 1831)
• Pachliopta aristolochiae (Fabricius, 1775) — common rose
• Pachliopta antiphus (Fabricius, 1793)
• Pachliopta atropos (Staudinger, 1888)
• Pachliopta hector (Linnaeus, 1758) — crimson rose
• Pachliopta jophon (Gray, [1853]) — Ceylon rose or Sri Lankan rose
• Pachliopta kotzebuea (Eschscholtz, 1821) — pink rose
• Pachliopta leytensis (Murayama, 1978)
• Pachliopta liris (Godart, 1819)
• Pachliopta mariae (Semper, 1878)
• Pachliopta oreon (Doherty, 1891)
• Pachliopta pandiyana (Moore, 1881) — Malabar rose
• Pachliopta phlegon (C. & R. Felder, 1864)
• Pachliopta polydorus (Linnaeus, 1763) — red-bodied swallowtail
• Pachliopta polyphontes (Boisduval, 1836)
• Pachliopta strandi (Bryk, 1930)