Swallowtail in Polissia
Papilio machaon
The swallowtail is one of the largest and most beautiful butterflies of Ukraine. Its wings are yellow with a black pattern, with blue spots and a red “eyespot” along the edge of the hindwings, as well as long “tails”.
The swallowtail occurs on meadows, forest edges, glades, in orchards and vegetable gardens. In Polissia it lives in all regions, but is nowhere numerous.
Swallowtail caterpillars are green with black crossbands and orange dots. They feed on plants of the carrot family – wild carrot, dill and parsley. A disturbed caterpillar extends orange, foul-smelling “horns” to scare off predators.
The swallowtail used to be in the Red Data Book of Ukraine and is now protected at regional level in a number of regions. Do not catch the butterflies, and leave the caterpillars you find on dill in the vegetable garden – there are usually few of them and they will not harm the harvest.
When to see: May–August, two generations per summer
Where it was seen in Polissia
Observations from the open scientific database GBIF since 1990.
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