Lime Swallowtail

Paruparo ng Kalamansi or Lime Swallowtail (Papilio demoleus). Butterfly is alibangbang in Bisaya or kumpapey in Pangasinanse. Also known as the Checkered swallowtail.

Walk around any city or town in the Philippines, especially on a sunny day, and chances are you will see a Lime Swallowtail!

Lime Swallowtail (Papilio demoleus).

Unlike other swallowtail butterflies, its hindwings don’t have tails 1. It can be easily found anywhere in the Philippines. And they love calamansi! Not the fruit, but the leaves of the calamansi tree. Adult Lime swallowtails lay their eggs on calamansi trees, or any citrus plants including lemon and orange trees. Once the eggs hatch, their young look like bird poo or tiki/tuko (house gecko) poo! 2

Which one is poop? Left: A young Papilio demoleus caterpillar, derived from the original graphic by Minh Gia Hoang. Right: Lizard poo (via Shutterstock, obviously).

As pretty as this species is (despite bird-poop-like babies), it is regarded as a pest in citrus plantations. Its larvae or caterpillars love citrus leaves so much they can eat almost all the leaves of younger trees 1, and they easily increase in number and spread out quickly 3. All this despite its lifespan of a month! 4.

Lime swallowtail caterpillars on one of their host plant leaves: calamansi. Below is a caterpillar before its 4th moulting or shedding of skin (or a lime swallowtail caterpillar in its 4th instar). Above it is one after the 4th moulting (or in its 5th instar). Instars are stages between moultings. See more images of the instars here.

It found its way to the Philippines from Asia and into Indonesia, as forest was cleared for urban expansion and plantings of citrus trees 5. Its expansion into the Philippines only happened within the last 70 years 3!

Next time you see the Lime Swallowtail, be thankful for calamansi, and always remember the influence agriculture has on biodiversity, and vice-versa!

Learn more about Calamansi at Filipino Food Art!

Support my art

Sources

  1. D. Lewis, 2009. Lime Swallowtail Papilio demoleus Linnaeus (Insecta: Lipidoptera: Papilionidae) or https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in786
  2. A. Talavera et al. Philippine Lepidoptera. https://philippinelepidopt.wixsite.com/butterflies/copy-of-papilionidae-swallowtails (Last accessed June 1, 2019).
  3. M. Wiemers, 2012. First record of the Lime Swallowtail Papilio demoleus Linnaeus, 1758 (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae) in Europe.
  4. M. Hoang, 2015. Studies on some aspects of the biology and ecology of Citrus butterfly Papilio demoleus (Papilionidae: Lepidoptera) on citrus in Vietnam.J. Nielsen, 2017. Additional characters for separating adults of Papilio demoleus sthenelus W.S. Macleay, 1826 (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) from P. demoleus L. subspeces of biosecurity concern to Australia.

Publish date: June 12, 2019.