Details
Papilio machaon
The Old World swallowtail is a large yellow butterfly with tails on the hindwings. By day it visits flowers in grassland, mountains, farms, and urban greenspaces.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
It occupies grassland, mountain slopes, farmland, and urban habitats across the Palearctic, the Nearctic. Open places with larval host plants are key.
Length 6.5-9 cm; weight 0.3 g-0.7 g. Yellow wings carry black netlike markings, with blue spots, a red eyespot, and a short tail on each hindwing. Its flight is broad and buoyant.
Diurnal and solitary, males patrol open vantage areas. Adults search around flowers and host plants for mates and egg-laying sites.
A nectarivore as an adult, it drinks from many flowers. Caterpillars are herbivores on selected host plants such as umbellifers.
Females lay eggs singly on host leaves. Caterpillars pupate after feeding, and pupae may overwinter before emergence.
It is listed as Least Concern, though local populations can still be affected by habitat change, collection, or pollution.
