Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly

Description:

Wingspan 105mm. Male is mostly black with narrow white band across forewing; large central pale patch and single red spot on hindwing. Female is larger; extensive pale areas on both wings; row of red spots around edge of hindwing.

Habitat:

Rainforest to woodland. Widespread in northern and eastern Australia. Also New Guinea and other sough-west Pacific islands.

Notes:

I have photographed the orchard swallowtail pupa, caterpillar and butterfly. It takes four weeks for the caterpillar to mature, ready to turn into a pupa and these ones in my garden are very developed. They have a “Y” shaped gland behind the head, the osmeterium which you can see in both of the above photographs I took. This pops up when the caterpillar senses danger and it is a bright red colour which I also noticed gives off an odour so I wasn’t game to get too close!