Battus laodamas

Green-patch swallowtail
Mounted specimen on display at Museo di Scienze Naturali Enrico Caffi, Bergamo
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Genus:	Battus
Species:	B. laodamas
Binomial name
Battus laodamas (C. Felder & R. Felder, 1859)
Synonyms
Papilio laodamas (C. Felder & R. Felder, 1859) Papilio chrysodamas (H.W. Bates, 1864) Papilio chromealus (Ehrmann, 1912) Papilio procas (Godman & Salvin, 1890) (preocc. Cramer, 1777)

Battus laodamas, the green-patch swallowtail or yellow-spotted swallowtail, is a species of butterfly in the family Papilionidae.

Description

Battus laodamas has a wingspan of about 90 millimetres (3.5 in). It is a black or dark brown butterfly with green reflections. The dorsal side of the hindwings shows a broad cream or pale green band and a series of cream or pale green spots. The underside of the wings is lighter brown, with a submarginal line of whitish spots on the forewings and a submarginal line of red markings on the hindwings. The forewings have a rounded apex and the outer edge of the hindwings is scalloped. The host plant of its caterpillars is Aristolochia tentaculata.

Distribution

This species is native to the Neotropical ecozone.^[1][2] It is present in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela.

Subspecies

• Battus laodamas laodamas (C. Felder & R. Felder, 1859) Möhn, 1999, Butterflies of the World 5: 7, plate 10, figures 7-8, plate 19, figures 5-6.^[3] Smart, 1976 The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Butterfly World page 158 fig. 14 .^[4] Colombia - S.W. Venezuela
• Battus laodamas copanae (Reakirt, 1863) Möhn, 1999, Butterflies of the World 5: 7, plate 10, figures 3-4. S. Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras
• Battus laodamas iopas (Godman & Salvin, 1897) Möhn, 1999, Butterflies of the World 5: 7, plate 10, figures 1-2 N. Mexico
• Battus laodamas rhipidius (Rothschild & Jordan, 1906) Möhn, 1999, Butterflies of the World 5: 7, plate 10, figures 5-6. Costa Rica, Panama

Gallery

• 

  Illustration of B. l. iopas from Biologia Centrali-Americana-Insecta, Vol III Plate 65. Publ. in 1881

• 

  Underside of B. l. iopas

References

1. Warren, A. D.; et al. (2010). "Battus laodamas". Butterflies of America. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
2. Glassberg, Jeffrey (2007). A Swift Guide to the Butterflies of Mexico and Central America. Sunstreak Books Inc. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-4243-0915-3.
3. Edwin Möhn, 2002 Schmetterlinge der Erde, Butterflies of the world Part V (5), Papilionidae II:Battus. Edited by Erich Bauer and Thomas Frankenbach Keltern : Goecke & Evers ; Canterbury : Hillside Books.ISBN 978-3-931374-70-9
4. Paul Smart, 1976 The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Butterfly World in Color.London, Salamander:Encyclopedie des papillons. Lausanne, Elsevier Sequoia (French language edition)ISBN 9780948427046 ISBN 0600313816

Further reading

• Lamas, Gerardo (2004). Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera; Checklist: Part4A Hesperioidea–Papilionoidea. Gainesville, Florida: Scientific Publishers, Inc. p. 90. ISBN 0-945417-28-4.

External links

• Savela, Markku. "Battus laodamas". funet.fi. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
• Butterfly corner Images from Naturhistorisches Museum Wien