Papilio gundlachianus f. pauperimus Rousseau-Decelle, 1943
Battus gundlachianus var. calzadillae Torre, 1971
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. A full description is provided by Rothschild, W. and Jordan, K. (1906)[2]
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.[3]
''Parides gundlachianus'' in a plate from ''Reise der Österreichischen Fregatte Novara'' - at bottom right
Parides gundlachianus is a member of the ascaniusspecies 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 group[4][5]
^C. & R. Felder, [1864]; C. & R. Felder, 1865 Reise der österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde in den Jahren 1857, 1858, 1859 unter den Behilfen des Commodore B. von Wüllerstorf-Urbair. Zoologischer Theil. Band 2. Abtheilung 2.
^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
^
Jordan, K., in Seitz, A. ( 1907) . The Macrolepidoptera of the World. 5: The Macrolepidoptera of the American faunistic region. Papilionidae 1-45. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^Edwin Möhn, 2007 Butterflies of the World, Part 26: Papilionidae XIII. Parides Verlag Goecke & Evers Verlag Goecke & Evers ISBN9783937783277
^Racheli, Tommaso an Olmisani. Luca 1998. A cladistic analysis of the genus Parides Hubner, [1819], based on androconial structures (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae). Neue Ent. Nachr. (Marktleuthen),41:119-131.pdf
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
