Description: The wings are narrow. The forewings are mostly brown. A yellow band runs from the tip, becoming narrower towards the back. There is also a row of yellow arcuate spots on the underside of the wing edge. The hind wings are predominantly brown, toothed and have a long caudal process. This carries a yellow core. There is a row of yellow arcuate spots at the edge of the hind wings. A broad yellow band runs through the first half of the wing. Inside sits a black eyespot with blue-white dusting. The yellow regions are more pronounced on the undersides of the wings. Blue-white arcuate spots adjoin the yellow arcuate spots on the upper side. The eyespot is only weakly pronounced.

melonius R. & J. is the subspecies from Jamaica: it has no cell-spot on the upper surface of the forewing. The reddish yellow spots on the under surface of the hindwing are very large. — oviedo Gundl. (= epithoas Oberth.) occurs on Cuba.
The upper surface of the forewing, and especially the under surface, are more extended yellow and have also a deeper tint than in the other subspecies. — autocles R. & J., occurring from Texas to Nicaragua, has no cell-spot; the yellow areas are pale.
— nealces R. & J. is distributed from Nicaragua to North-West Ecuador and eastward, to Trinidad and the Lower Orinoco.

The forewing has always a cell-spot: the yellow tint is somewhat deeper than in autocles, but less deep than in the next subspecies; very common in Bogoti-collections. — thoas L. comes from the Guianas and the Lower Amazon. Deep yellow; forewing with cell-spot, the first spot near the apex of the wing usually small.
— cinyras Men. is a large form, which inhabits the Middle and Lower Amazon and the eastern slopes of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia; the submarginal spots of the forewing are almost always absent.
— brasiliensis R: & J. , from Brazil, Paraguay and North Argentina, is often still larger than cinyras; the cell-spot of the forewing is absent or small, the first spot near the apex of the wing is mostly large and produced into a point.
— thoantiades Burm. occurs in Argentina, especially in the province of Buenos Aires. It is a small form, usually with narrow, pale yellow band.
A large species (12 to 14 cm wingspan.

Habitats: This swallowtail are found in many different habitats including tropical rainforest up to cloudforest, at elevation between 600 m. and around 1200 m.

Behaviour: the butterfly is only active in the bright sunshine until 12 o'clock noon when the midday heat is worst that they fly into the forest shade for a siesta until late afternoon where they again fly around searching for females.

Both sexes visit flowers high up in canopy of flowering trees and shrubs.

Males are often seen along the river beaches and dry river beds, imbibing mineralized moisture. They are regel seen singly, but sometimes several gather together, regel amidst aggregation of Nymphalids and Perids.

Biology: Adult Thoas swallowtails fly year round in the tropics, feeding on nectar of a variety of flowers, including Lantana, Stachytarpheta, and Bougainvillea among other species.

Foodplants: The caterpillars feed on the leaves of citrus plants (Rutaceae). They have also been reported as feeding on a member of the genus Piper.

Distribution: It is found in the southernmost United States, Mexico, Central America and South America (as far south as Argentina and Uruguay).

Species:
Heraclides thoas (Linnaeus, 1771). Thoas Swallowtail.
Subspecies:
Heraclides thoas autocles (Rothschild & Jordan, 1906). Texas to Panama.
Heraclides thoas nealces (Rothschild & Jordan, 1906). Panama to Venezuela, Colombia, W Ecuador, far NW Peru.
Heraclides thoas thoas (Linnaeus, 1771) TL: Surinam.
Heraclides thoas ssp. cinyras (Ménétriés, 1857). Brazil and Bolivia.
Heraclides thoas brasiliensis (Rothschild & Jordan, 1906). Brazil and Bolivia.
Heraclides thoas thoantiades (Burmeister, 1878). Argentina.

Similar species: The species is easily confused with the giant swallowtail, which it closely resembles in both larval and adult stages.
Giant Swallowtail, Papilio cresphontes (Cramer, 1777) formerly considered a subspecies of thoas is very similar. Elegant black butterfly with bright yellow band in the outer midfield on forewing and rearwing, and long tails on the rearwing.

Family: Swallowtail, Papilionidae (Latreille, 1802). - 32 genera, 568 species.
Subgenus: Papilio (Linnaeus, 1758). 157 species.
Subgenus Heraclides (Hübner, 1819). 36 species. Heraclides genus from America.
Subgenus Pterourus (Scopoli, 1777). 29 species. Pterourus genus from America

GBIF: Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
World distribution:
Thoas Swallowtail, Heraclides thoas (Linnaeus, 1771).

íNaturalist.org
began as the Master's final project of Nate Agrin, Jessica Kline,
and Ken-ichi Ueda at UC Berkeley's School of Information in 2008.
Thoas Swallowtail, Heraclides thoas (Linnaeus, 1771).

Butterflies of America.com
Papilionidae

first update d. 8 december 2024

  last update d. 8 december 2024

Family: Papilionidae. 3 genera, 175 species.
Subfamily: Baroniinae (Salvin, 1893) 1 species.
Subfamily: Parnassiinae (Latreille, 1804). 4 species,
Subfamily: Papilioninae (Linnaeus, 1758). 169 species.

Tribe: Leptocircini (Kirby, 1896).
Genus: Eurytides (Hübner, 1821) includes Mimoides & others. 44 species.

Tribe: Troidini (Talbot, 1939).
Genus: Battus (Scopoli, 1777). 12 species.
Genus: Euryades (C. Felder & R. Felder, 1864). 2 species.
Genus: Parides (Hübner, 1819). 36 species.

Tribe: Papilionini (Linnaeus, 1758).
Subtribe: Papilionina (Linnaeus, 1758).
Subgenus: Heraclides (Hübner, 1819). 36 species.
Subgenus: Pterourus (Scopoli, 1777). 29 species.
Subgenus: Papilio (Linnaeus, 1758). 9 species.

Butterflies of America.com
Papilionidae
Intro: In the interactive list presented herein, family-, genus-, and species-level nomenclature generally follows Pelham (2008) and/or Opler & Warren (2002, 2005) for taxa occurring in the United States and Canada, Smith et al. (1994) for Caribbean taxa, and Warren (2002), Lamas (2004), Mielke (2005), or recently published studies (e.g., Wahlberg et al. 2005, Brower et al. 2006) for other Neotropical taxa, with few exceptions.

All cases that differ from these sources, as well as undescribed taxa indicated in the list, will be elaborated upon in future publications currently under preparation by the authors of this list and their colleagues. Scientific names used herein strictly conform to the mandatory provisions of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999), with one exception.

The provision in the Code requiring agreement in the gender of species-group names (when they are not or do not end in a Latin or Latinized adjective or participle in the nominative singular; see ICZN 1999: 38, article 31.2.1) with that of the genus-group name (ICZN 1999: 38, article 31.2, p. 43, article 34.2) has not been followed. For a complete discussion of why the application of this provision is impractical and problematical, see Sommerer (2002) and Lamas (2004). Therefore, in cases where the status of emended names is questionable (see ICZN 1999: 39-43, articles 32 and 33), the original orthography of names is used herein.

Use of the word “Complex” after a species’ name indicates that more than one species is apparently represented by that name, yet relationships of the undescribed taxa remain poorly understood. Unlike scientific names, where rules dictated by the ICZN govern the use and application of all names, there are no rules governing the use or application of English, “common,” or “vernacular” names, and such names have no formal taxonomic standing. Common names used herein are taken mostly from Warren & Llorente (1999), Brock & Kaufman (2006) and Warren et al. (2008), with new names coined for many Central American taxa.

The current listing includes all species, subspecies, and distinctive undescribed segregates known to the authors to occur on the North American continent, from Alaska through Panama, Hawaii and the Caribbean islands (excluding Trinidad, Tobago, and islands off the Venezuelan coast). Since our knowledge of the butterfly fauna of Mexico and Central America remains largely fragmentary, we anticipate frequent additions of Neotropical taxa to the list over time.

Family: Swallowtail, Papilionidae (Latreille, 1802).
- 32 genera, 568 species in world.

Der findes i troperne flere Svalehaler; Papilionider der deler udseende med Danider eller Heliconider, forskellen imellem de 3 familier kendes på hvilestilling, Svalehalen sidder med 3 par ben, hvor Daniderne/Heliconiderne sidder med 2 par ben, hvor det forreste par ben er forkrøblet som i resten af Takvinge familien. Daniderne og Heliconiderne lever også på giftige planter, så det er praktisk at dele samme advarselsfarver! Dette fænomen kaldes Mimicry.