Palamedes swallowtail
The Palamedes swallowtail is a big dark brown butterfly with yellow bands across its wings. Underneath, its back wings have stripes of cream, orange and blue. It glides through warm, wet swamp forests in the south of the United States.
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Fun facts
Its caterpillar is green with two big fake eyes on its front end.
The caterpillar hides in a shelter it makes from a leaf.
Its green chrysalis has two little horns on its head and rests through the whole winter.
When a male and female meet, they fly side by side, about a foot apart, slowly and together.
Its long tongue reaches deep into some special flowers, like some wild orchids.
Most asked questions about Palamedes swallowtail
?How big is the Palamedes swallowtail?
Its wings measure about 11 to 13 centimetres from tip to tip.
?What does a Palamedes swallowtail caterpillar eat?
Leaves of redbay, swampbay and sassafras trees.
?Where does the Palamedes swallowtail live?
In swamps and wet forests of the southeastern United States and northeastern Mexico.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Papilio palamedes
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Laurel swallowtail
Where the facts come from
- Papilio palamedes (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 Renee from Las Vegas, USA. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same 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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