Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius)

Scarce Swallowtail

The Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) is a butterfly found in gardens, fields and open woodlands. It is found in places with sloe thickets and particularly orchards. It is also called Sail Swallowtail or Pear-tree Swallowtail.

The Scarce Swallowtail is widespread throughout Europe with the exception of the northern parts. Its range extends northwards to Saxony and central Poland and eastwards across Asia Minor and Transcaucasia as far as the Arabian peninsula, India, and western China. A few specimens of the Scarce Swallowtail have been reported from central Sweden and the UK but they were probably only strays and not migrants. The scarcity of UK migrants is responsible for the English common name. In the Alps it can be found up to altitudes of 1600 m.

The food plant includes hawthorn bushes. The caterpillars spin little pads on leaves and grip them firmly. The newly hatched caterpillar is dark in colour with two smaller and two bigger greenish patches on the dorsal side, later they are greenish with yellowish dorsal and side stripes. The summer chrysalids are green as a rule, the hibernating ones are brown.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarce_Swallowtail - 09.10.2010

Scarce Swallowtail

By the clearer base colour, the clear abdomen and the paler dark stripes, this Scarce Swallowtail is noticeable as member of the second or later generation.

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