📸 PhotoPhoto: Notafly · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Formosan swallowtail
Papilio thaiwanus (Formosan swallowtail · Formosan swallowtail)
Not Evaluated (NE) on the IUCN Red List yet.
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 A maximum wingspan of 8.2 cm is slightly shorter than the long side of a credit card (8.56 cm) (Comparison).
- 💡 The Taiwan Biodiversity Network (TBN) classifies this butterfly as a native Taiwanese endemic species.
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 Formosan swallowtail is an endemic swallowtail butterfly (family Papilionidae) living only in Taiwan, distributed across the mountains of the main island of Taiwan.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
It is a medium-sized swallowtail with a blackish-brown body and elongated forewings and hindwings. Males have blackish-brown upper wings with a dark blue metallic sheen, while females are paler with orange-red and white markings and are slightly larger. The wingspan is about 7.5–8.2 cm.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
Taiwan's Ministry of Education dictionary records that it is distributed across low mountains and remote deep mountains rarely visited by people.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List: not evaluated (NE) — cross-checked with the Wikidata conservation-status entry
- • catalogueoflife.org — 4CKQJ
- • wikidata.org — Q262960
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Ptaiwan.JPG
- • pedia.cloud.edu.tw — Detail
- • tbn.org.tw — ac65ec88-e139-41e7-ae90-a49d6e431308
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Sara Gamboa · CC0 1.0 (Congeneric silhouette — Papilio)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.