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Sticker of Dragon swallowtail
Bug card No. 1415 of 4,939

Dragon swallowtail

Sericinus montela
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesGardens and meadows6 legs

The dragon swallowtail is a swallowtail butterfly from East Asia. It belongs to the same group as the Apollo butterflies of the mountains. It is so special that it is the only species in its whole genus.

Lives in
The Russian Far East, Korea, China and Japan
Top speed
about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Like other swallowtails, the grown-ups sip nectar from flowers.
For real!Photo of Dragon swallowtail
Picture by J. Patrick Fischer. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Scientists have given it lots of different names over the years, so its name history is very tangled.

2

It has a spring family and a summer family, and the two can look a little different.

3

It is found in many forms in different parts of China, Korea and Russia.

you asked

Most asked questions about Dragon swallowtail

?Where does the dragon swallowtail live?

In East Asia: the Russian Far East, Korea, China and Japan.

?Is the dragon swallowtail dangerous?

No. It is a harmless butterfly.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Sericinus montela
Named by
Gray, 1853
Group
Butterflies
Family
Papilionidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
Lives on
Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Sericinus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by J. Patrick Fischer. 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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More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows

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