Reference photo of a pinned Papilio demodocus specimen, upper side

Reference photo

Photo: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London · Natural History Museum, London · CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized). Not the specimen in Lucy’s drawer.

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Papilio demodocus

Esper, 1798

Order by November 30 for delivery by Christmas.

Your framed specimen is a different individual of the same species, chosen and mounted by Lucy.

  • Papilionidae
  • Butterfly
Catalog label
Family
Papilionidae
Subfamily
Papilioninae
Tribe
Papilionini
Where it lives
Africa

From the catalog of Lucy Garcia Salik, PhD. A mounted specimen from a licensed supplier.

Research notes

From published sources, not from Lucy’s catalog. Each note lists where it came from.

Description

A large swallowtail butterfly. Its common English name is citrus swallowtail, and it is also called the Christmas butterfly.

Where it lives

Sources place this butterfly in Africa, including Madagascar. One source describes it as widespread across sub-Saharan Africa and also present in the southern Arabian Peninsula.

Life cycle

Like other butterflies, it goes through four stages: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult. The caterpillar hatches from the egg, feeds on leaves, and then forms a chrysalis before the adult comes out.

Look-alikes

This species belongs to a small group of closely related 'lime swallowtails' in the Papilio demoleus group. It looks a lot like the lime swallowtail, Papilio demoleus, which lives mainly in Asia and nearby regions.

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