Diet

• Adults: Feed primarily on flower nectar, visiting flowering plants in sunny openings and along forest edges.

• Caterpillars: Feed on Aristolochia tentaculata (Aristolochiaceae), a pipevine. Like other Battus, the larvae are specialized on Aristolochia species.

• Feeding on these chemically defended plants allows the caterpillars to accumulate defensive compounds that make the resulting butterflies distasteful to many predators.

Range

• Battus eracon is a western Mexican endemic, with its range concentrated along the Pacific side of Mexico.

• It is considered local and uncommon, with its distribution particularly associated with western Mexico, the Pacific coastal plain and parts of the Balsas region.

• Around Zihua, Battus eracon would likely be considered rare to occasional. Its presence should be particularly associated with places where Aristolochia vines occur.

Habitat

• Primarily associated with tropical deciduous and seasonally dry forest, coastal hills and forest edges. A study in Oaxaca recorded B. eracon specifically in tropical deciduous forest.

• It is generally a low-elevation butterfly, most often encountered below about 600 m, with records concentrated around coastal hills and adjacent lowland forest.

• Around Zihua, dry forest, forest margins, ravines and vegetated coastal hills containing Aristolochia would be the best places to search.

Size

• Approximately 65–75 mm wingspan.