This lifeform is found widely in the New World tropics. This lifeform is widespread, but not common.

Graphium pausanias is an unusual Heliconid mimic that has no tails. This species is found from Costa Rica to Bolivia and west into Brazil. This species is smaller than many other Papilios. Although the IUCN Red Data Book lists this as rare, we observe that it is rare in assortments from Tingo Maria, Peru, and note that it is not rare in southern Colombia. Three species are:

   SPECIES                               LOCATION
   Graphium pausanias prasinus           Costa Rica
   Graphium pausanias cleombrotus        West Colombia
   Graphium pausanias pausanias          Colombia to Bolivia

Gerardo Lamas in his 2004 checklist of Neotropical Lepidoptera retains this as a full species.  He also adds two other subspecies as follows:

Graphium pausanias hermolaus of Venezuela
Graphium pausanias tabaquita of Trinidad

Graphium genus of swallowtail butterflies can be roughly divided into two main groups of butterflies.  There are species with long narrow tails; there are species with no tails at all.  In the Oriental region and Indo-Australian region,  the long tailed Graphium are typically divided into subgenera such as Pathysa and Pazala.  In these regions, some of the non-tailed and short-tailed species in this genus retain the name of Graphium and others are placed in genera such as Paranticopsis and Meandrusa.  In the New World, some authors place the long-tailed species into the genus Eurytides; others place all the species in the genus Eurytides.  About 150 different named species and subspecies in this interesting genus are shown.

Graphium lysithous group text is based on the older Rothschild and Jordan revision of the New World Papilionidae. Changes based on the D'Almeida listing have been noted. Also included are some changes based on various articles. These changes have been noted 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 D'Almeida 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.

New World Graphium group of Kite Swallowtails is usually divided into several major groups. The breakdown here is according to Rothschild and Jordan.

Graphium lysithous group contains many species that mimic various Parides. However, in this group the red spots are always located on the base of the wings and not the body. In the Parides genus, the red spots are located on the body.
    
The twenty species of the Graphium lysithous group are as follows (an * indicates that this species is pictured):

   SPECIES                         LOCATION

   Graphium pausanus*              Costa Rica to Bolivia
   Graphium microdamas*            Paraguay and Argentina
   Graphium protodamas*            Southeast Brazil
   Graphium phaon*                 E. Mexico to Ecuador & Venez.
   Graphium euryleon*              Costa Rica to Ecuador
   Graphium hipparchus             Cauca Valley, Colombia
   Graphium illuminatus            South Colombia
   Graphium harmodius*             Colombia to Bolivia
   Graphium trapeza*               East Ecuador
   Graphium xynias*                Bolivia and Peru
   Graphium ariarethes*            Colombia to Bolivia and East
   Graphium ilus                   North Venezuela to Panama
   Graphium branchus*              Mexico to Costa Rica
   Graphium belesis*               Mexico to Nicaragua
   Graphium thymbraeus*            Mostly Mexico
   Graphium lysithous*             Paraguay and Southeast Brazil
   Graphium (lysithous)rurik*      Santa Catarina, Brazil
   Graphium (lysithous)eupatorion  East Brazil
   Graphium (lysithous)harrisianus East Brazil
   Graphium asius*                 Brazil and Paraguay

Gerardo Lamas in his 2004 checklist of Neotropical Lepidoptera moved Graphium hardmodius into Graphium xeniades. He moved Graphium trapeza to a subspecies of Graphium xynias. He also moved Graphium illuminatus to a subspecies of G. ariarathes.

Graphium hipparchus was placed as a subspecies of Graphium phaon and called Papilio phaon ssp therodamas.

Lamas also moved Graphium branchus to a subspecies of Graphium ilus; removed Graphium belesis as a species, and placed it as a synonym of Graphium branchus which he moved to a subspecies of Graphium ilus.

He also moved the valid species, Graphium asius, to the Graphium marcellus group.

He changed the genus of the above group to Mimoides.

In summary, Lamas reduces this group to only 11 species:

G. ariarathes, G. euryleon, G. ilus, G. lysithous,
G. microdamas, G. pausanias, G. phaon,
G. protodamas, G. thymbraeus, G. xeniades, and G. xynias.

Family Papilionidae (Swallowtails), Papilio family, contains about five hundred and fifty different species with perhaps a new species still being discovered every two or three years. Many species are sexually dimorphic in that the females do not look like the males. A common example of this is the Tiger Swallowtail of North America where the males are always yellow and black and the females can be either yellow and black or occasionally a blue color.

Swallowtails are usually medium to large species and strong fliers. They are unusual in that the adults have six fully developed legs. Many newer families of butterflies have only four well-developed legs with the front two legs being very underdeveloped.

Butterfly scientists are attracted to this group, and high prices are paid for the largest and the rarest kinds. Most of the species are bred locally on a hobby-business basis to fill the demand.

The Queen Alexander might be extinct. Although this species has been protected, the damage seems to have been done by land clearing projects which took away its natural habitat. The number of specimens in collections seems to be so small that collectors cannot be blamed for this extinction. There are probably less than ten collections in the United States that have over five hundred different species of Papilionidae.

Butterflies and Moths (Order Lepidoptera) are a group of insects with four large wings. They go through various life cycles including eggs, caterpillar (larvae), pupae, and adult. Most butterflies and moths feed as adults, but primarily do most of their growing in the larval or caterpillar stage. Also, most species are restricted to feeding as caterpillars upon a unique set of plants. In this pairing of insects to plants, there arises a unique plant population control system. When one plant species becomes too common, specific pests to that species also become more common and thus prevent the further spreading of that particular plant species.

Although most people think of the Lepidoptera as two different groups: butterflies and moths, technically, the concept is not valid.

Some families, such as Silk Moths (Saturnidae) and Hawk Moths (Sphingidae), are clearly moths. Other families, such as Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilionidae), are clearly butterflies, However, several families exhibit characteristics that appear to be neither moths nor butterflies. For example: the Castnia Moths of South America are frequently placed in the Skipper Family (Hesperidae). The Sunset Moths (Uranidae) have long narrow antennae and fly during the day.

Note: Numerous museums and biologists have loaned specimens to be photographed for this project.

Insects (Class Insecta) are the most successful animals on Earth if success is measured by the number of species or the total number of living organisms. This class contains more than a million species, of which North America has approximately 100,000.

Insects have an exoskeleton. The body is divided into three parts. The foremost part, the head, usually bears two antennae. The middle part, the thorax, has six legs and usually four wings. The last part, the abdomen, is used for breathing and reproduction.

Although different taxonomists divide the insects differently, about thirty-five different orders are included in most of the systems.

The following abbreviated list identifies some common orders of the many different orders of insects discussed herein:

   Odonata:      Dragon and Damsel Flies
   Orthoptera:   Grasshoppers and Mantids
   Homoptera:    Cicadas and Misc. Hoppers
   Diptera:      Flies and Mosquitoes
   Hymenoptera:  Ants, Wasps, and Bees
   Lepidoptera:  Butterflies and Moths
   Coleoptera:   Beetles

Jointed Legged Animals (Phylum Arthropoda) make up the largest phylum. There are probably more than one million different species of arthropods known to science. It is also the most successful animal phylum in terms of the total number of living organisms.

Butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers, various insects, spiders, and crabs are well-known arthropods.

The phylum is usually broken into the following five main classes:

   Arachnida:      Spiders and Scorpions
   Crustacea:      Crabs and Crayfish
   Chilopoda:      Centipedes
   Diplopoda:      Millipedes
   Insecta:        Insects

There are several other "rare" classes in the arthropods that should be mentioned. A more formal list is as follows:

   Sub Phylum Chelicerata

     C. Arachnida:      Spiders and scorpions
     C. Pycnogonida:    Sea spiders (500 species)
     C. Merostomata:    Mostly fossil species

   Sub Phylum Mandibulata

     C. Crustacea:      Crabs and crayfish
      
   Myriapod Group

     C. Chilopoda:      Centipedes
     C. Diplopoda:      Millipedes
     C. Pauropoda:      Tiny millipede-like
     C. Symphyla:       Garden centipedes

   Insect Group

     C. Insecta:        Insects

The above list does not include some extinct classes of Arthropods such as the Trilobites.

Animal Kingdom contains numerous organisms that feed on other animals or plants. Included in the animal kingdom are the lower marine invertebrates such as sponges and corals, the jointed legged animals such as insects and spiders, and the backboned animals such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.