Post by papiliotheona on Oct 9, 2013 8:46:12 GMT -8
Who of you has experience collecting or buying/trading for, legally, the northern Latin American citrus swallowtails such as Papilio/Heraclides ornythion, astyalus, and thoas? I'd like to find a legal source for all three. This is a beautiful subgenus and it's too bad that cresphontes will be the only representation of it for 99% of us. :-(
Ornythion ranges from southern Texas (a stray and sporadic breeder, not a reliable and consistent resident) down to Guatemala or Honduras, depending on what source you believe. It is most common in east-central Mexico, more sporadic down south. There used to be a famous lime tree in northern Belize that had larvae of it (and astyalus) in numbers, but this was nearly 100 years ago. Astyalus is also a stray to south TX, but gets much further south than ornythion. It has many subspecies. Thoas is found throughout the entire Neotropics, in many different ssp. I'm interested in all of them but I'd like to have something resembling the Mexican ssp. of it.
We all know the deal with Mexico. It's either completely impossible or very nearly so (depending on who you believe) to get a valid collecting/export permit for Mexico. Therefore some of the Mexico-only subspecies of the above insects, like astyalus bajaensis (very narrow bands, looking almost exactly like ornythion) are off-limits to everybody, but there are others like a. pallas, etc., that have broader ranges and should have somewhere where they can be lawfully obtained. It's easier to get permits for Belize, Guatemala, etc.
Thanks in advance for your help...
Papiliotheona
Ornythion ranges from southern Texas (a stray and sporadic breeder, not a reliable and consistent resident) down to Guatemala or Honduras, depending on what source you believe. It is most common in east-central Mexico, more sporadic down south. There used to be a famous lime tree in northern Belize that had larvae of it (and astyalus) in numbers, but this was nearly 100 years ago. Astyalus is also a stray to south TX, but gets much further south than ornythion. It has many subspecies. Thoas is found throughout the entire Neotropics, in many different ssp. I'm interested in all of them but I'd like to have something resembling the Mexican ssp. of it.
We all know the deal with Mexico. It's either completely impossible or very nearly so (depending on who you believe) to get a valid collecting/export permit for Mexico. Therefore some of the Mexico-only subspecies of the above insects, like astyalus bajaensis (very narrow bands, looking almost exactly like ornythion) are off-limits to everybody, but there are others like a. pallas, etc., that have broader ranges and should have somewhere where they can be lawfully obtained. It's easier to get permits for Belize, Guatemala, etc.
Thanks in advance for your help...
Papiliotheona
