These huge, bright butterflies use their forked ‘tail streamers’ to mimic a second pair of antennae. You can’t mistake them. The swallowtail is the biggest native butterfly you’ll see anywhere on the British Isles.
I took these photos in Corfu. The ‘Old World Swallowtail’, or Papilio machaon, once lived all over Britain, but since World War Two its fenland habitat has almost entirely vanished. Nowadays, British Swallowtails lay their eggs on milk parsley in the Norfolk Broads.
Linnaeus named different Swallowtail species after heroes from Homer’s Iliad. Papilio, the Swallowtail genus, is just the Latin word for butterfly. This yellow species is named after Machaon, a mythical medic.
As swallowtails try to land on plants, they look quite ungainly. Their wings seem oddly triangular, and they flap about like tangled kites. In the sky, however, they drift beautifully.
Above, you can see them feeding from Blue Plumbago flowers. In Corfu, I found them basking in leafy gardens and even flying over beaches, especially where the seafront tavernas were decorated with vines or potted plants. They were perfectly happy in the August heat, which reached 36°C in the shade. Old World swallowtails can be found across North America, Asia and Europe.
Sources
This page only contains my own photographs.
ed. Bricknell, Christopher. The Royal Horticultural Society Gardener’s Encyclopedia: Plants and Flowers (London: Dorling Kindersley Ltd, 1994)
Papilio Machaon. Idaho Museum of Natural History Digital Atlas. Web. 1 Sep 2017. http://www.imnh.isu.edu/digitalatlas/bio/insects/butrfly/fampap/pamaf.htm
RSBP Wildlife of Britain: The Definitive Visual Guide (London: Dorling Kindersley Ltd, 2011) p 189
Swallowtail Butterfly. Norfolk Wildlife Trust, 2017. Web. 1 Sep 2017. https://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife-in-norfolk/species-explorer/terrestrial-invertebrates/swallowtail-butterfly
P.S. – Swallowtail caterpillars are definitely worth a Google. Bright green and orange, with black bands to match the adults, they have a unique organ called an ‘osmeterium’ that emits a stink to deter predators.
wildwildweb.org 