Pale swallowtail
The pale swallowtail is a big creamy white butterfly with thick black tiger stripes and long tails on its back wings. Some have a few red orange patches just above the tails. It likes woods near ponds and streams.
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Fun facts
Up to a dozen or more males gather on damp mud to drink water and get salts.
Its plump green caterpillar has two eye-shaped spots that may scare predators.
When scared, the caterpillar pops out a red forked horn that gives off a bad smell.
Its brown pupa looks just like a piece of bark.
Most asked questions about Pale swallowtail
?How big is the pale swallowtail?
Its wings are about 9 to 11 centimetres across, as wide as a grown-up's hand.
?What does the pale swallowtail caterpillar eat?
Leaves of ceanothus, alder, cherry and serviceberry bushes.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Papilio eurymedon
- Named by
- Lucas, 1852
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Pallid swallowtail
Where the facts come from
- Papilio eurymedon (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 VJAnderson. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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