The Citrus Swallowtail (papilio demodocus)is one of our more common butterflies. It is large with a wingspan of about 85mm. They lay their eggs on citrus trees. I caught this one in the garden and he was frienly enough to crawl on my hand and let me take the following two photographs.
This is a close-up section of the wing. Sometimes I think I should get a microscope for pictures like these.
These were taken of one I found in the garden. He was on his last legs and sat perfectly still while allowing me to take these pictures.
Before citrus trees were brought here, they fed on various other plants but adapted to their new liking for citrus as there were no other insects on them.
Their systems developed a way to process the oils found in the plant.
The larvae use these oils to develop a noxious smell which is exuded in the red forked scent glands they put out when threatened by predators.
They are large butterflies but unlike most of the species, have no long tails.
Both male and female sip the nectar from various flowers for moisture and energy.
