Parides eurimedes is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae. It is commonly known as the mylotes cattleheart, Arcas cattleheart, pink-checked cattleheart, and true cattleheart. It is native to the Americas.
Subspecies In 2004, Gerardo Lamas combined Parides arcas and Parides timias into Parides eurimedes. He lists the following subspecies: P. e. eurimedes (Stoll, 1782) (northern Colombia and northern Venezuela)Lewis, H. L., 1974 Butterflies of the World Page 26, figure 1, female P. e. agathokles (Kollar, 1850) (Colombia) P. e. antheas (Rothschild & Jordan, 1906) (Colombia) P. e. arriphus (Boisduval, 1836) (central Colombia) P. e. emilius Constantino, 1999 (western Colombia) P. e. mycale (Godman & Salvin, 1890) (Panama to northern Colombia) P. e. mylotes (H.W. Bates, 1861) (southern Mexico to Costa Rica) P. e. timias (Gray, ) (western Ecuador)Lewis, H. L., 1974 Butterflies of the World Page 26, figure 24, female
Description
The wingspan measures . P. e. mylotes is black with both sexes having a red patch on the dorsal hindwing. The dorsal forewing of the male has a triangular green patch. The female has a white patch on the dorsal forewing. A full description (as P. arcas and P.timias) is provided by Rothschild, W. and Jordan, K. (1906)Rothschild, W. and Jordan, K. (1906). A revision of the American Papilios. Novitates Zoologicae 13: 411-752. (Facsimile edition ed. P.H. Arnaud, 1967) and online
Distribution and habitat P. eurimedes is found in the Neotropical realm from Mexico to northern South America, where it is commonly found in tropical forests.
Life cycle The purple-brown caterpillar is spotted with black. A white lateral stripe is found on each side of the body. The chrysalis is pale yellow green. Host plants include Aristolochia grandiflora, A. nummularfolia, A. odoratissima, A. pilosa, and A. tonduzii.
Taxonomy
Parides eurimedes is a member of the aeneas species groupEdwin Möhn, 2007 Butterflies of the World, Part 26: Papilionidae XIII. Parides Verlag Goecke & Evers Verlag Goecke & Evers
The members are Parides aeneas Parides aglaope Parides burchellanus Parides echemon Parides eurimedes Parides lysander – Lysander cattleheart Parides neophilus – spear-winged cattleheart Parides orellana Parides panthonus – panthonus cattleheart Parides tros Parides zacynthus
References
Further reading