Old World swallowtail
Amazing fact
Some Old World swallowtails have dark wings instead of yellow ones.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Some Old World swallowtails have dark wings instead of yellow ones.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Old World swallowtail
- Scientific name
- Papilio machaon
- Japanese name
- キアゲハ
- Group
- Insects
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Genus
- Papilio
A butterfly found mainly in Europe and Asia. It likes sunny, grassy places and visits flowers for nectar.
Its wings are yellow with black markings, and its hind wings have blue and red spots.
Adults are common on grassy hilltops, where they hold territories. Caterpillars eat the leaves of plants such as parsley and carrot.
How the Old World swallowtail lives
As caterpillars grow, they tend to feed on the flowers of their host plants. Adults fly with strong wingbeats. They spend the winter as pupae.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web守山市Basic data
- Size
- Wingspan: 5.5–8.8 cm
- Diet
- Flower nectar
- Range
- Europe, Asia, Canada, Alaska and California
Where the Old World swallowtail has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- キアゲハ
- 简体中文
- 金凤蝶
- 繁體中文
- 黃鳳蝶
- 한국어
- 산호랑나비
- Español
- Macaón
- Français
- Grand porte-queue
- Deutsch
- Schwalbenschwanz
- Português (Brasil)
- Borboleta-cauda-de-andorinha
- Italiano
- Macaone
- العربية
- مذناب مقون
- Русский
- Махаон
- Türkçe
- Kırlangıçkuyruk
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Papilio machaonChecked: 2026-11-03
- 守山市 — 美崎公園とその周辺の自然（チョウのなかま）Checked: 2026-11-04
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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