Paris peacock
The Paris peacock is a big swallowtail butterfly with black wings sprinkled with shiny green dust. On each back wing it has a bright blue patch that sparkles in the sun. Near the tail are red eyespots, like on a peacock's feathers.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Paris peacock compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its open wings can be as wide as a grown-up's hand, more than 13 centimetres.
The green sprinkles on its wings are tiny scales, like coloured dust.
The female is a little paler than the male, and her blue patch is often green instead.
It is common in Sikkim in the Himalayas, where it flies up to about 1500 metres high.
Underneath, its wings are black with a pale triangle and a row of red half-moons.
Most asked questions about Paris peacock
?How big is the Paris peacock butterfly?
Its open wings are about 10 to 13 centimetres across, so it is a big butterfly.
?Where does the Paris peacock live?
In India, the Himalayas and Southeast Asia, mostly in hilly forests.
?Why is it called a peacock?
Because of its shiny blue and green colours and its eyespots, like on a peacock's tail.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Papilio paris
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Paris peacock swallowtail
Where the facts come from
- Papilio paris (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 Charles J. Sharp. 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.
Monarch butterfly
Peacock butterfly
Blue morpho
Old World swallowtail
Small white
Eastern tiger swallowtail
Australian paralysis tick
Lord Howe Island stick insect
Lac insect
Jack jumper ant
Spongy moth
Deer ked_Xindian.jpg){kind=link}