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Sticker of Macleay's swallowtail
Bug card No. 2708 of 4,939

Macleay's swallowtail

Graphium macleayanus
Name means: “named after Alexander Macleay”
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesForests and woods6 legs

Macleay's swallowtail is a pretty green butterfly from Australia. Its wings are green with white marks and black edges, and its back wings end in long tails. It is the only swallowtail butterfly that lives in Tasmania.

Lives in
Eastern Australia and Tasmania, in towns, forests, woodlands and heath
Wingspan
5.3 to 5.9 cm (2.1 to 2.3 in)
the female is a bit bigger than the male
Top speed
about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a gentle butterfly that cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-up butterfly drinks nectar from flowers such as tea trees, lantana and buddleia. The caterpillar eats the leaves of trees and bushes.
For real!Photo of Macleay's swallowtail
Picture by JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ). CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Macleay's swallowtail wings about 5.9 cm tip to tip (2.3 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 2 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 25 seconds

How big is Macleay's swallowtail compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its caterpillar is green with tiny white dots and a humped back. It grows to about 4 centimetres long.

2

Its pupa is green with thin yellow lines, so it hides well among the leaves.

3

It is one of the most widespread swallowtails in Australia, and the only one in Tasmania.

4

It was once found on Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island, but nobody has seen it there since 1893.

5

The butterflies fly from August to March, which is spring and summer in Australia.

you asked

Most asked questions about Macleay's swallowtail

?Where does Macleay's swallowtail live?

In eastern Australia, from Queensland down to Victoria and Tasmania, in forests, woodlands and even towns.

?How big is Macleay's swallowtail?

Its wings are about 5 to 6 centimetres across. The female is a little bigger than the male.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Graphium macleayanus
Named by
Leach, 1814
Group
Butterflies
Family
Papilionidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Graphium macleayanus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ). CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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