Citrus Swallowtail
Papilio demodocus · Butterflies
Citrus Swallowtail
Carlsbad, 7 March 2026
A Citrus Swallowtail on the mesh of the butterfly house, an African species found across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, where the caterpillars feed on citrus and it is a familiar garden butterfly and a minor pest of orchards.
The blue-and-orange eyespots at the base of the hindwing tails are the giveaway, alongside the dense white spotting on black. In South Africa it is the Christmas butterfly, for its habit of emerging in numbers around the southern summer.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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