Long-tail spangle swallowtail
The long-tail spangle swallowtail is a big black butterfly with wavy wing edges and red spots. Its back wings end in some of the longest, prettiest tails of any swallowtail. Each back wing also has a red eyespot near the body.
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Fun facts
There is a spring kind that flies from April to June and a summer kind that flies in July and August.
The female flies low in the daytime and lays her eggs one at a time on leaves.
It spends the winter as a pupa, and pupae can be green or grey-brown.
Males have a yellow band where the front and back wings overlap.
It was first found in the mountains of Japan.
Most asked questions about Long-tail spangle swallowtail
?How big is the long-tail spangle swallowtail?
Its wings measure about 9 to 12 centimetres from tip to tip.
?What does the long-tail spangle caterpillar eat?
Leaves of plants in the citrus family, such as Japanese pepper and trifoliate orange.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Papilio macilentus
- Named by
- Janson, 1877
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Long-tailed spangle
Where the facts come from
- Papilio macilentus (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 Alpsdake. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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