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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Asian swallowtails sip nectar while beating their wings.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Asian swallowtail
- Scientific name
- Papilio xuthus
- Japanese name
- ナミアゲハ（アゲハチョウ）
- Group
- Insects
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Genus
- Papilio
Where the name “Asian swallowtail” comes from
The name agehacho is said to come from the way it rests with its wings raised.
三鷹市A butterfly seen all over Japan. Wherever the trees its caterpillars eat are growing, it can be found anywhere from towns to mountains.
Young caterpillars are blackish with white markings and look just like bird droppings. This is said to keep them from being eaten.
Caterpillars eat plants such as citrus and Japanese pepper. When in danger, they push out horns that give off a smell.
How the Asian swallowtail lives
They lay their eggs on the leaves of citrus-family plants. As caterpillars grow, they molt and turn green like leaves. They spend winter as pupae.
守山市三鷹市Basic data
- Range
- Hokkaido to Okinawa
Where the Asian 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
- 简体中文
- 柑橘凤蝶
- 繁體中文
- 柑橘鳳蝶
- 한국어
- 호랑나비
- Deutsch
- Japanischer Schwalbenschwanz
- Italiano
- Macaone asiatico
- Русский
- Парусник ксут
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 三鷹市 — みたかいきもの図鑑 アゲハチョウChecked: 2026-11-03
- 国土交通省 大隅河川国道事務所 — 肝属川の昆虫 ナミアゲハChecked: 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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