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Dryadula phaetusa

Dryadula phaetusa

Antorcha Rayada

Family: Nymphalidae
Order: Lepidoptera
Class: Insecta
Phylum / Division: Arthropoda
Kingdom: Animalia

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Records from Santo Tomé


Description


Dryadula is a monotypic genus of the butterfly family Nymphalidae. Its single species, Dryadula phaetusa, known as the banded orange heliconian, banded orange, or orange tiger, is native from Brazil to central Mexico, and in summer can be found rarely as far north as central Florida. Its wingspan ranges from 86 to 89 mm, and it is colored a bright orange with thick black stripes in males and a duller orange with fuzzier black stripes in females.

It feeds primarily on the nectar of flowers and on bird droppings; its caterpillar feeds on passion vines including Passiflora tetrastylis. It is generally found in lowland tropical fields and valleys.

This species is unpalatable to birds and belongs to the "orange" Müllerian mimicry complex.

Symbiosis: Prior to their mating season, males of this species congregate by the hundreds on patches of moist soil that contain mineral salts, a behavior known as mud-puddling. When they cannot find such deposits, the insects visit various animals to drink salty secretions from their skin and nostrils.

Taxonomy: The genus Dryadula Michner, 1942, is monotypic; the type species is Papilio phaetusa Linnaeus, 1758 (Syst. Nat. 10 ed., 1: 478). The type locality, given as "Indiis", is supposed to refer to the West Indies or northern South America.

Source: Wikipedia, article Dryadula phaetusa. Content adapted from Wikipedia, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Accessed on 15/07/2026.





Geographic distribution


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Species photographs

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Foto
Photography ID: 210629
  Adult

Santo Tomé
Santa Fe
Argentina
03/23/2017
Eduardo Beltrocco
Foto
Photography ID: 94456
  Adult

Santo Tomé
Santa Fe
Argentina
03/15/2015
Hernán Ernesto Bortondello



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 Detail of places sorted by number of records








Page 1
Record IDDateExact timeCountryProvince / departmentPlaceFilmedPhotographedRecorded vocalObservedHeardWounded or deadNumber of individualsUser or BibliographyDetail
123669912/01/2020ArgentinaSanta FeArea Natural Protegida Laguna Juan de Garay (ex Bedetti), Santo Tomé2Leila Lodi
121520212/01/2020ArgentinaSanta FeArea Natural Protegida Laguna Juan de Garay (ex Bedetti), Santo Tomé2Eduardo Beltrocco
121494029/12/2019ArgentinaSanta FeArea Natural Protegida Laguna Juan de Garay (ex Bedetti), Santo Tomé2Eduardo Beltrocco
115203715/12/2019ArgentinaSanta FeHumedal lindante al Rio Salado, Santo ToméEduardo Beltrocco
112266431/10/2019ArgentinaSanta FeHumedal lindante al Rio Salado, Santo Tomé1Eduardo Beltrocco
59233023/03/2017ArgentinaSanta FeCostanera (iriondo y rotonda), Santo ToméEduardo Beltrocco
27183315/03/2015ArgentinaSanta FeComplejo Residencial El Paso, Santo ToméHernán Ernesto Bortondello
Page 1

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Recommended citation
Please use the following reference when citing this species account.
EcoRegistros. 2026. Dryadula phaetusa – Species account. Accessed from www.ecoregistros.org on 17/09/2026.