The Dainty Swallowtail is indeed found in Canberra, although less
frequently than its larger relative. They are occasional visitors to our garden,
and males can often be seen patrolling around the summit of Mts Ainslie and
Majura. This behaviour is common to males of many (but by no means all) species
of butterfly and is called hill-topping - males set up a territory on a
high point such as a hill top and defend it against others while waiting for a
female to maybe wander through. On a good day you can see up to 15 species
doing just this around the top of Mt Ainslie.
Interestingly, the Dainty Swallowtail is more frequent in Melbourne,
where Orchard Swallowtails are rare. On the subject of common names, Dingy
Swallowtail used to be widely used for the Dainty S. An awful name for a
beautiful insect, well done whoever came up with the alternative!
cheers
Steve
From: Geoffrey Dabb
[
Sent: Sunday, 22 February 2009 5:45 PM
To:
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Cavorting Butterflies
I notice that Michael Braby in his excellent field guide prefers
the name ‘Orchard Swallowtail’ for this seasonally common and
much-inquired-about insect. He gives as another name ‘Large Citrus
Butterfly’. If that is used, the adjective seems necessary as there
is also a ‘Small Citrus Butterfly’ (Dainty Swallowtail Papilio
anactus) the range of which, according to the little map, includes
Canberra.
From: Tony Lawson
[
Sent: Sunday, 22 February 2009 12:33 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Cavorting Butterflies
The attached photos were taken in our backyard by my wife.
To me it looks like 2 different species - size, colour and shape
are different. But the black & white one seemed fascinated by the
bigger whitish one (which looks very like one that was recently discussed on
this chatline).
Are the species the same? If not why were they'cavorting
together'? And what species are they?
One benefit of their behaviour was that they were in the same spot
for quite some time rather than fluttering all over the place like most of the
butterflies that we see in our garden.
