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.
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)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
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.Jordan, K., in Seitz, A. ( 1907) . The Macrolepidoptera of the World. 5: The Macrolepidoptera of the American faunistic region. Papilionidae 1-45. The host plants of its caterpillar are Aristolochia
Subspecies Parides gundlachianus gundlachianus (eastern Cuba) Parides gundlachianus alayoi Hernández, Alayón & Smith, 1995 (western Cuba)
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 groupEdwin Möhn, 2007 Butterflies of the World, Part 26: Papilionidae XIII. Parides Verlag Goecke & Evers Verlag Goecke & Evers plate 1, f. 1-2, 6-8; pl. 1, f. 3-5;Racheli, Tommaso an Olmisani. Luca 1998. A cladistic analysis of the genus Parides Hubner, , based on androconial structures (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Neue Ent. Nachr. (Marktleuthen),41:119-131.pdf
The members are Parides agavus (Drury, 1782) Parides alopius (Godman & Salvin, ) Parides ascanius (Cramer, ) Parides bunichus (Hübner, ) Parides gundlachianus (C. & R. Felder, 1864) Parides montezuma (Westwood, 1842) Parides phalaecus (Hewitson, 1869) Parides photinus (Doubleday, 1844) Parides proneus (Hübner, )
Status Found only in forests in Cuba and not rare but requiring monitoring.
Etymology The specific epithet honours the Cuban naturalist Juan Gundlach.
See also List of Lepidoptera of Cuba
References
Hamilton A. Tyler; Keith S. Brown; Kent H. Wilson 1992 Swallowtail Butterflies of the Americas Scientific Pub Lewis, H. L., 1974 Butterflies of the World Page 26, figure 4 as columbus, figure 10 as gundlachianus. D’Abrera, B. (1981). Butterflies of the Neotropical Region Part I. Papilionidae and Pieridae. Lansdowne Editions, Melbourne. xvi + 172 pp. Further reading
External links Butterflies of America: Parides gundlachianus—type specimens Parides gundlachianus