Red-bodied swallowtail Red-bodied swallowtail Red-bodied swallowtails are butterflies in the swallowtail family, that belong to the genera "Atrophaneura", "Byasa", "Losaria", or "Pachliopta". They are generally found in Asia (Indomalaya ecozone). Collectors have found the red-bodied swallowtails difficult to kill. Pinching the thorax, a method which kills most butterflies, is withstood and apparently only stuns the butterfly temporarily. The eggs are simple. The larvae resemble those of other Troidini. Fleshy spine-like tubercles, often with red tips, line the caterpillars' backs, and their bodies are dark red to brown and velvety black or shades of grey with a pattern of black lines. They feed
Swallowtail butterfly for protection from predators. Swallowtail tribes Zerynthiini (Parnassiinae), Luehdorfiini (Parnassiinae) and Troidini (Papilioninae), almost exclusively use the family Aristolochiaceae as their host plants. For example, the eastern black swallowtail's main host plant in the wild is Queen Anne's lace, but they also eat garden plants in the carrot family, including carrots, parsley, dill, and fennel. Adult swallowtails sip nectar, but also mud and sometimes manure. The detailed descriptions of morphological characteristics of the Papilionidae, as quoted in Bingham (1905) are as follows: Stages of development of a papilionid, the giant swallowtail ("Papilio cresphontes") The key characteristics that differentiate the Papilionidae