Old World swallowtail
The Old World swallowtail is a big yellow butterfly with black lines on its wings. Its back wings end in two little tails, like the tail of a swallow bird. Next to each tail it has one red spot and six blue spots.
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Fun facts
A young caterpillar looks just like a bird dropping, so hungry birds leave it alone.
When the caterpillar is scared, it pushes out a bright orange fork from behind its head.
In 2017 people in Estonia voted for it, and it became the National Butterfly of Estonia.
Males like to fly to the tops of hills and wait there for females to pass by.
It is the biggest butterfly that lives all year in Britain, but there it is found only in a few wet places.
Most asked questions about Old World swallowtail
?What does a swallowtail caterpillar eat?
Plants from the carrot family, such as dill, parsley, fennel and wild carrot. Sometimes you can find it right on garden dill.
?How big is the Old World swallowtail?
Its wings are about 6.5 to 8.6 centimetres from tip to tip.
?Why is it called a swallowtail?
Its back wings have two pointy tails that look like the tail of a swallow bird.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Papilio machaon
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America
- Also known as
- Common yellow swallowtail, Swallowtail
Where the facts come from
- Papilio machaon (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 Entomolo. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same 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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