Battus (butterfly)
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Battus
Pipevine swallowtail Battus philenor
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Lepidoptera Family: Papilionidae Subfamily: Papilioninae Tribe: Troidini Genus: Battus Scop., 1777
Species
Battus crassus Battus polydamas Battus philenor

Battus is a genus of butterflies that are usually found around pipevine (genus Aristolochia) plants. The caterpillars feed off the poisonous pipevines, making the insects poisonous themselves; they taste very bad to ward off predators (Pinheiro 1996). Since birds avoid these butterflies, other swallowtail species mimic their coloration. The common North American species are Battus polydamas and Battus philenor.

Museum specimen of Battus philenor

References

• Pinheiro, Carlos E. G. (1996): Palatablility and escaping ability in Neotropical butterflies: tests with wild kingbirds (Tyrannus melancholicus, Tyrannidae). Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 59(4): 351–365. HTML abstract

External links

• http://www.insects-online.de/infosystem/Battus/battus01.htm
• http://bugguide.net/node/view/222

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