Swallowtail

Papilio machaon

Papilio machaon, the Old World swallowtail, is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. The butterfly is also known as the common yellow swallowtail or simply the swallowtail. It is the type species of the genus Papilio. This widespread species is found in much of the Palearctic and in North America. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this insect was recorded 65 times across 9 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 14°C (typically 14 to 19°C, from 7 areas). That holds across 20° of latitude, which suggests its timing follows temperature more than the calendar.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in Europe ranged from 42°N in April to 63°N in June, about 2,300 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.