Zebra swallowtail
The zebra swallowtail has black and white stripes like a zebra and two long tails on its back wings, like swords. Near its body it has little blue and red spots. It almost never goes far from pawpaw trees, because that is what its caterpillars eat.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Zebra swallowtail compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its caterpillars take poison from pawpaw leaves into their bodies, and it may help keep birds from eating the butterflies.
When a caterpillar is bothered, it pops out a smelly yellow fork from behind its head to scare spiders and ants.
The caterpillars eat each other, so the mother lays her eggs one by one on different leaves.
Spring butterflies are smaller and whiter, while summer ones are bigger with longer tails.
Males gather on wet sand and mud to sip salts. This is called puddling.
Most asked questions about Zebra swallowtail
?What does a zebra swallowtail eat?
Adults drink nectar and minerals from damp soil. The caterpillars eat pawpaw leaves.
?How big is a zebra swallowtail?
Its wings measure about 6,4 to 10,4 centimetres across.
?Where can I see a zebra swallowtail?
In the eastern United States, close to pawpaw trees. It is the state butterfly of Tennessee.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Eurytides marcellus
- Named by
- Cramer, 1777
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Eurytides marcellus (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 Megan McCarty. CC BY 3.0, 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