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Swallowtail butterfly

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This article is about the insect. For the 1996 film by Shunji Iwai, please see Swallowtail Butterfly (film).

iSwallowtail butterflies

Image:Swallowtail dying.jpg

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucus

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Suborder:	Ditrysia
Superfamily:	Papilionoidea
Family:	Papilionidae Latreille, 1802

Type Species

Papilio machaon
(Old World Swallowtail)

Subfamilies and genera

There are 26 genera and about 605 species:

Subfamily Baroniinae
- Baronia
Subfamily Parnassiinae
- Alancastria
- Archon
- Bhutantis
- Hypermnestra
- Luehdorfia
- Parnassius
- Serecinus
Subfamily Papilioninae
- Atrophaneura
- Battus
- Byasa
- Chilasa
- Cressida
- Euryades
- Eurytides
- Graphium
- Iphiclides
- Lamproptera
- Losaria
- Meandrusa
- Mimoides
- Ornithoptera
- Pachliopta
- Papilio
- Parides
- Pharmacophagus
- Protesilaus
- Protographium
- Teinopalpus
- Trogonoptera
- Troides

Image:Osmeterium.JPG

The Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies, which form the family Papilionidae. There are at least 550 species, and though the majority are tropical, members of the family are found on all continents except Antarctica. The family includes the largest butterflies in the world, the birdwing butterflies of Australasia (genus Ornithoptera).<ref name="reed"> Reed, Robert D. and Sperling, Felix A. H. 2006. Papilionidae. The Swallowtail Butterflies. Version 07 July 2006. [1] in The Tree of Life Web Project, [2]</ref>

Swallowtails differ from all other butterflies in a number of anatomical traits. Most notably, their caterpillars possess a unique organ behind their heads, called the osmeterium. Normally hidden, this forked structure can be everted when the caterpillar is threatened, and emits a foul-smelling secretion containing terpenes. The adults are often tailed giving the name.

1 Classification
2 In popular culture
3 Notable species
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Classification

The genera of extant swallowtails are usually classified into three subfamilies, Baroniinae, Parnassiinae and Papilioninae, the latter two being further divided into tribes. An additional subfamily Praepapilioninae, has a single extinct member, and is known only from a single fossil.<ref>Durden, C.J., and H. Rose. 1978. Butterflies from the middle Eocene: the earliest occurence of fossil Papilionidae (Lepidoptera). Pearce-Sellards Ser. Tex. Mem. Mus. 29: 1-25.</ref>

Image:Parnassius pheobus.jpg

The Swallowtail butterflies in the tribe Papilionini number about 225 species and studied have been made on their host-plant coevolution and phylogeny. A study found that the Papilios are monophyletic and old morphological classifications where also found to be valid in that they formed clusters. Species belonging to the groups that use Rutaceae as host plants formed two groups corresponding to Old World and American taxa. Those that fed on Lauraceae and Magnoliaceae were found to form another cluster which includes both Asian and American taxa.<ref>Aubert J, Legal L,Descimon H,Michel F. 1999 Molecular phylogeny of swallowtail butterflies of the tribe Papilionini (Papilionidae, Lepidoptera). Mol Phylogenet Evol.12(2):156-67</ref>

Swallowtail tribes Zerynthiini (Parnassiinae), Luehdorfiini (Parnassiinae) and Troidini (Papilioninae) almost exclusively use the Aristolochiaceae family as their host plants. Many species sequester aristolochic acids making them unpalatable., causing both the larval and adult stages to be unpalatable to predators.<ref>von Euw, J., T. Reichstein, and M. Rothschild. 1968. Aristolochic acid in the swallowtail butterfly Pachlioptera aristolochiae. Isr. J. Chem. 6: 659-670.</ref>

The subfamily Baroniinae is represented by the sole representative species Baronia brevicornis.

The Apollos, Parnassiinae, are a distinctive group and all species are alpine and capable of living at high altitudes. The genera Parnassius and Hypermnestra were found to be extremely close in molecular studies.<ref>Katoh T, Chichvarkhin A, Yagi T,Omoto K. 2005 Phylogeny and evolution of butterflies of the genus Parnassius: inferences from mitochondrial 16S and ND1 sequences. Zoolog Sci.22(3):343-51</ref>

[edit] In popular culture

Swallowtail butterflies being large, colourful and attractive have been the target of butterfly collectors in earlier times. The largest of these, the Birdwing butterflies are particulary sought after and are cultured in butterfly farms for the purpose of collectors.

Many members of the family feed as larvae on plants of the Citrus family Rutaceae. Some of these attractive butterflies are therefore considered pests in Citrus orchards.

The Oregon Swallowtail Butterfly is the state insect of Oregon; the eastern tiger swallowtail is the state insect of Virginia. (See List of U.S. state butterflies)