Pipevine swallowtail
The pipevine swallowtail is a black butterfly whose back wings shine bright blue in the light. Its caterpillars are black or red with orange spots and soft spikes. They eat a poisonous plant, which makes both the caterpillars and the butterflies taste horrible to birds.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It gets its name from the pipevine plant, the only food its caterpillars eat.
The caterpillars store the plant's poison in their bodies, so birds that eat them get sick.
Its eggs are red or orange and covered in bumpy stripes of food, which the babies eat when they hatch.
The caterpillars grow to about 5 centimetres long.
Its name philenor comes from a Greek word meaning fond of her husband.
Most asked questions about Pipevine swallowtail
?Is the pipevine swallowtail poisonous?
Yes, to birds. The caterpillars eat poisonous pipevine plants and keep the poison in their bodies. It is safe to look at.
?What do pipevine swallowtail caterpillars eat?
Only the leaves of pipevine plants, also called Dutchman's pipe.
?Where can you see a pipevine swallowtail?
In much of the United States and down to Mexico, in woods, meadows and gardens.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Battus philenor
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1771
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Blue swallowtail
Where the facts come from
- Battus philenor (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 Ryan Kaldari. Public domain, 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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