White dragontail butterfly
The white dragontail is a small swallowtail butterfly with a very long, thin tail on each back wing, tipped with white. A white band runs straight across its dark wings, and part of its wings are clear like glass. It lives in South and Southeast Asia.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its whole life, from egg to butterfly, takes only about six weeks.
Its caterpillar starts out black and turns apple green as it grows, with black spots on its green head.
Its pupa is only about 2 centimetres long and is yellow green or emerald, matching the leaf it hangs on.
It is common in most places, but in Peninsular Malaysia it needs protection.
Most asked questions about White dragontail butterfly
?Why is it called a dragontail?
Because each of its back wings ends in a very long, thin tail, like the tail of a dragon kite.
?Where does the white dragontail live?
In South and Southeast Asia, from India to Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lamproptera curius
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- White dragontail
Where the facts come from
- Lamproptera curius (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 Ms Sohini Vanjari, <sohivanjari(at)yahoo.co.in>. CC BY-SA 2.5 in, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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