Troidini

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Troidini
Troides helena
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Subfamily: Papilioninae
Tribe: Troidini
Genera

Troidini is the tribe of Aristolochia swallowtails that includes the genus Battus.

It consists of some 135 species worldwide and 3 species that occur North America. Members of this tribe feed on poisonous pipevine plants (genus Aristolochia). As a result, they are poisonous themselves, taste extremely bad to predators (Pinheiro 1986), and are mimicked by other butterflies (Scott 1986).

[edit] 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
  • Scott, James A. (1986): The Butterflies of North America. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1205-0