Ruby-spotted swallowtail
The ruby-spotted swallowtail is a big dark butterfly with red spots on its back wings, like little rubies. Unlike many swallowtails, its tail is very short or missing. It loves to drink at wet spots on river banks.
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Fun facts
Its caterpillars often rest together in big groups, sometimes hundreds on one citrus stem.
It is not a forest butterfly. It likes open places near rivers.
Some butterflies of this kind have white spots on their front wings, others do not.
Once in a while, one strays as far north as Kansas and Arizona.
Most asked questions about Ruby-spotted swallowtail
?Where does the ruby-spotted swallowtail live?
From southern Texas through Central America all the way to Argentina.
?How big is the ruby-spotted swallowtail?
Its wings measure 7 to 10 centimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Heraclides anchisiades
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
- Also known as
- Red-spotted swallowtail
Where the facts come from
- Papilio anchisiades (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 Anne Toal from US. CC BY 2.0, 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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