Five-bar swordtail
Graphium antiphates
The five-bar swordtail is a white swallowtail butterfly with black stripes. Its front wings have five short black bars, and its back wings end in long pointy tails like little swords. Underneath, its wings are tinted green.
Lives in
South and Southeast Asia
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups drink from flowers and sip water from wet mud. The caterpillars eat the leaves of their food plants.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Five-bar swordtail about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It likes to sit on wet mud and sip it. This is called mud-puddling.
2
The five black bars on its front wings give it its name.
3
Its caterpillar starts out white and turns yellow when it is older.
4
Its green chrysalis is held up by a silk belt, like all swallowtails.
you asked
Most asked questions about Five-bar swordtail
?Why is it called a swordtail?
Because its back wings have long, pointy tails that look like little swords.
?Where does the five-bar swordtail live?
It lives in South and Southeast Asia.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Graphium antiphates
- Named by
- Cramer, 1775
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Graphium antiphates (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 Sayan Sanyal. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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