Narrative

Papilio-torquatus group text is based on the older Rothschild and Jordan revision of the New World Papilionidae. Changes based on the DAlmeida listing have been noted. Also included are changes based on various articles. The changes are been included to comply with the taxonomy as published in 2004 by Gerardo Lamas in his checklist of Neotropical Lepidoptera. The Rothschild and Jordan text as modified by DAlmeida has been retained because for many years it was the only good source of information on this group. Many serious Neotropical Papilionidae collections in the world are based on the Rothschild and Jordan organization.

Papilio torquatus group is limited to the American Tropics. There are seven species (an * indicates that this species is pictured):

SPECIES - - - - - LOCATION
Papilio himeros - Brazil
Papilio lamarchei - northern Argentina
Papilio hectorides* - eastern Brazil and Paraguay
Papilio garleppi - Bolivia and upper Amazon
Papilio torquatus* - Mexico to Bolivia to Paraguay
Papilio peleides - South America (maybe an artifact)
Papilio tasso - South America (an aberration of P.torquatus!)

Papilio peleides is known by only an ancient description as researchers have never found a specimen in either a museum or in nature. Current thinking is that this was an error and the species never existed. However, the name always turns up in literature searches. Gerardo Lamas does not include it in his 2004 checklist.

Mr. Lamas has also removed Papilio peleides from this list and changed the genus for this group to Heraclides.

Taxonomy

References