Spend a moment in our Butterfly Rainforest with Ryan talking about the Mexican kite swallowtail, Protographium epidaus, from Mexico and Central America. Like many swallowtails, this species is known to flutter its wings while feeding.
Mexican kite swallowtail butterflies are related to our Florida native Zebra Swallowtails!
Transcript
Hello. My name is Ryan. Welcome to the Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Today we’ll be releasing a butterfly from the swallowtail family known as the Mexican Kite Swallowtail.
Despite its name it does actually range into other parts of Central America. We get them from El Salvador, specifically. You know it has very long tails and the tips of the wings are actually somewhat translucent. Like other swallowtails it does tend to keep its wings fluttering as it feeds. And if it looks familiar it is closely related to other butterflies we have in the Butterfly Rainforest such as the swordtails from Africa and is even closely related to our native Zebra Swallowtail.
They do emerge sporadically so we don’t have more than a handful flying at any given time. Like other swallowtails one will come out here and one will come out there, so usually only one or two will be flying inside the exhibit in any given moment. Which is a shame because they’re gorgeous little butterflies.
But regardless, hopefully you’ll get a chance to come in and see them yourself. I hope you’ve all enjoyed, and have a great rest of the day. Thank you.
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Support the exhibitVideo by Ryan Fessenden; Produced by Radha Krueger