The White-dotted Cattleheart (Parides alopius) is an endemic Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 in the family Papilionidae. It has also strayed once into the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in southeastern Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

.

Description

The upper side of the wings are black with the hind wing having two rows of submarginal spots: the first row, white; and the second row, pink. Males have fewer white spots than females. The underside of the wings are similar except the hind wing pink spots are more conspicuous. It has a wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 of 3-3.5 inches.

Life cycle

The larva is ringed with black and white bands and has yellow and reddish-brown fleshy projections. Each side of the body contains red, orange, and white spots. The chrysalis is shaped very similar to that of the Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor). It is a blue-green color with the head, parts of the thorax, and abdomen a bright yellow-green color. It is unknown whether the chrysalis has a brown form or not.

Host Plants

The only known recorded host plant for the White-dotted Cattleheart is Watson's Pipevine (Aristolochia watsonii).