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Chequered Swallowtail butterfly - Papilio demoleus
FAMILY PAPILIONIDAE
This page contains information and pictures about Chequered Swallowtail Butterflies in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Wingspan 80mm
- Chequered Swallowtails Butterflies are sometime seen visiting our backyard. They are large and beautiful, with a black and white pattern on fore and hind wings like a chequer board. They are fairy common in Brisbane.
- On each hind wing, there are two eyes pattern spots. The one on the top is bluish-green in colour like the pattern of the peacock tails. The bottom eye spot is orange-red with blue eyebrow. On the black abdomen there are five white strips running along.
- Their caterpillars look similar to the Orchard Swallowtail caterpillar when small, become green and brown when grown. They feed on Emu's Foot Plants Cullen tenax (Psoralea tenax). The above photo show the female laying egg on host plant.
- Reference:
- 1. Create More Butterflies - by Frank Jordan and Helen Schwencke, Earthling Enterprises, 2005, p11.
