AbstractWithin the family Papilionidae (Lepidoptera), species display a broad range of feeding patterns, from oligophagy on a single hostplant family to polyphagy on over a dozen families. Accompanying this diversity of feeding strategies is a diversity of physiological mechanisms for processing hostplant allelochemicals. Studies on members of this family as well as other Lepidoptera suggest that oligophagy is associated with high activity, in addition to high substrate specificity, of detoxicative enzymes.