📸 PhotoPhoto: Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Old World swallowtail
Papilio machaon (Old World swallowtail · キアゲハ)
Not Evaluated (NE) on the IUCN Red List yet.
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 A summer-form wingspan of 95 mm is about 1 cm longer than the long side of a credit card (85.6 mm) (Comparison).
- 💡 The National List of Species of Korea notes that females lay eggs on the undersides of leaves of vegetable and herb plants such as carrot, water dropwort, and fennel, and that it is frequently seen in Hangang riverfront parks.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Old World swallowtail is a large butterfly in the family Papilionidae widely distributed across Asia, Europe, and North Africa, living in mountains and grasslands nationwide on the Korean Peninsula.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its wingspan is 65–75 mm in the spring form and 85–95 mm in the summer form. It has black markings on a yellow background, blue-indigo crescent spots and a round orange spot near the inner angle of the hindwing, and unlike the Asian swallowtail, lacks yellowish-white stripes in the forewing discal cell.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It produces 2–3 generations a year and overwinters as a pupa. It sips nectar from royal azalea flowers in spring and thistle and Sorbaria sorbifolia flowers in summer, and shows strong territorial behavior along mountain paths and ridges. Females lay eggs on the undersides of leaves or flower buds of host plants such as water dropwort, carrot, fennel, and trifoliate orange.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
Distributed throughout the Korean Peninsula, the National List of Species of Korea notes that it is also frequently observed recently in riverside grasslands such as Hangang riverfront parks.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List: not evaluated (NE) — cross-checked with the Wikidata conservation-status entry
- • catalogueoflife.org — 4CKH8
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000035916 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000035916
- • wikidata.org — Q179530
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:(MHNT) Papilio machaon - Chęciny (Mazovie) - Poland - m
- • species.nibr.go.kr — mainHome.do
- • animaldiversity.org — Papilio machaon
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Margot Michaud · CC0 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.