Heraclides anchisiades

Heraclides anchisiades(Heraclides anchisiades)

Phylumarthropoda
Class —insecta
Order — lepidoptera
Family —papilionidae

Genus –heraclides

Appearance

Heraclides anchisiadesare large and mostly black with a wingspan of 7-10 cm. Their most distinctive characteristics are pink, ruby, or purplish spots on the hindwings. Females can be detected by a diffuse white patch on the upper forewing. In the early stages, the caterpillars are green and brown with white markings and bulges on their backs. The pupae are light-brown in color with light green spots, and are thicker in their anterior portion.

Habitat

Heraclides anchisiadescan be found from south Texas, USA to Argentina, but have also been reported in Kansas, southeast Arizona, and west Texas in the United States.

Behavior

The butterflies are only active in bright sunshine. Both sexes will visit Lantana and the flowers of many trees and shrubs, but males are much more commonly seen on river beaches and dry river beds, imbibing mineralized moisture. They are usually seen singly, but sometimes several gather together.

When feeding either at flowers or on the ground, the wings are kept constantly fluttering. After several minutes, if undisturbed, they eventually relax and fully outspread their wings.

Diet

As caterpillars, Heraclides anchisiadesfeed on citrus trees such as Citrus, Casimiroa, Zanthoxylum, and as adults, they use their proboscis to feed on flower nectar.

Reproduction

For their reproduction you need a terrarium with a size of 50 x 50 x 70 cm. Females lay eggs in groups of 40 on the leaves of the forage plant. The eggs are yellowish-brown, spherical, about 2 mm in diameter.The incubation period is 6-7 days. It is better to keep the caterpillars in mesh terrariums, 10-20 insects in one place. In the terrarium, you need to place a branch of a forage plant. Forage plants in caterpillar terrariums should be replaced every 3-4 days.The temperature is 22-25 oC at the humidity of60-70%. The caterpillar develops for a month and a half.The butterfly leaves the pupa after 2-3 weeks.

In captivity

The mesh terrarium with a size of 50 × 50 × 70 mm is suitable for keeping butterflies. Room temperature is necessary. Daylight time is 12 hours. You can feed the butterflies with honey syrup diluted with boiled water in a ratio of 1: 10.

 

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