NL·0590Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Papilio machaon
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Native to
- Europe, North Africa, temperate and mountain Asia to Japan, and north-western North America (Alaska and Canada)
- Habitat
- Temperate grassland, Fen, Mountain meadow, Farmland, Tundra
Old World swallowtail
Papilio machaon
Also calledSchwalbenschwanz (German) · Macaón (Spanish) · Machaon (French) · Kiageha (Japanese) · Jīn fèngdié (Chinese)
A large yellow-and-black butterfly with tailed hindwings, found right across the northern hemisphere. Its green caterpillar defends itself by shooting out a forked orange organ that reeks of rancid butter.
Papilio machaon, the Old World swallowtail, is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. The butterfly is also known as the common yellow swallowtail or simply the swallowtail. It is the type species of the genus Papilio. This widespread species is found in much of the Palearctic and in North America. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iCaterpillars evert an osmeterium, a forked scent gland releasing foul-smelling acids, to repel ants and wasps
- iiMales gather on hilltops to find females ('hilltopping')
- iiiRanges from sea-level fens to Himalayan meadows above 4,000 m
In the field
Field marks
- aYellow wings with black veins and a broad black outer border
- bRow of blue scales along the hindwing border, with a red eyespot near the body
- cShort black hindwing tails
- dCaterpillar green with black bands dotted with orange
- Not to be confused with
- Scarce swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) is pale cream with bold black diagonal stripes and much longer tails. Corsican swallowtail (P. hospiton) is confined to Corsica and Sardinia and has shorter tails. In North America, the black swallowtail (P. polyxenes) is mostly black.
- Where to see it
- Norfolk Broads in England (Hickling Broad, Strumpshaw Fen, How Hill); flowery hillsides throughout southern Europe and the Alps.
- When
- Europe: two or three broods Apr–Sep; in England mainly late May–June with a partial second brood in August
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Life & habits
- Diet
- Adults take nectar from thistles, red clover, ragged robin and other flowers; caterpillars eat plants of the carrot family (fennel, wild carrot, dill, milk-parsley)
- Habitat
- Flowery open country: meadows, fens, mountain slopes, coastal hills and gardens with fennel or dill
- Size
- Wingspan about 6.5–9 cm
In Britain the native subspecies britannicus is a specialist of the Norfolk Broads, laying eggs only on milk-parsley; continental swallowtails use many carrot-family plants.
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
Europe, North Africa, temperate and mountain Asia to Japan, and north-western North America (Alaska and Canada)
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
No plate in the Source Library names this exact species, so these show its closest relatives as the old naturalists drew them: same genus, or the same kind of animal. Click a plate to read the page it came from, with translation.
The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise
Relative · Alfred Russel Wallace · 1869 · p.160
The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise
Relative · Alfred Russel Wallace · 1869 · p.159
Theater of Insects
Relative · Conrad Gessner; Thomas Moffet; Edward Wotton · 1634 · p.129
The Subterranean World Volume Two
Relative · Athanasius Kircher · 1678 · p.395
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Papilio machaon in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
Linnaeus named it in 1758 after Machaon, the healer son of Asclepius in Homer's Iliad. In 18th-century England it was called the 'Royal William', a name usually linked to William III.
Curiosity
Its caterpillar starts life black and white, looking like a bird dropping, and only turns green with black bands in later moults.
Kinship
Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 56529.