Astyalus swallowtail

The Astyalus swallowtail is a big butterfly from Central and South America, with wings about 12 centimetres across. The male is black with a wide yellow band across his wings. The female is darker and has no yellow band.

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Fun facts
Its back wings have tails, and near each tail there is an orange-red eyespot with a shiny blue moon shape above it.
Its caterpillars eat the leaves of citrus trees, like orange and lemon trees.
Grown-ups fly from April to October, and there are probably two generations a year.
Every now and then one strays north into Texas or even Arizona.
The male's body is yellow underneath and black on top, while the female's body is all black.
Most asked questions about Astyalus swallowtail
?How big is the Astyalus swallowtail?
It is big. Its wings are about 12 centimetres from tip to tip.
?How can you tell a male from a female?
The male has a wide yellow band across his black wings. The female is darker and has no yellow band.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Heraclides astyalus
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
- Also known as
- Broad-banded swallowtail
Where the facts come from
- Papilio astyalus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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