The orchard swallowtail butterfly (Papilio aegeus) is a native Australian butterfly that is rather beautiful and relatively common.
The caterpillars of this butterfly eat a few native plants, and they are particularly fond of citrus.
As their young thrive on citrus, and many homesteads grow lemons and other citrus, the orchid swallowtail butterfly are one of the few animals that has benefitted since the arrival of Europeans. I think they are pretty common up north and near the coast, so much so they can be a pest, and they are far less common down here where we get cold winters.
We have a lovely productive Meyer lemon tree. These butterflies lay their eggs on this tree, but the tree is so prolific, and there are usually so few caterpillars that they do very little damage. I am happy to share the lemon tree with them. We don't miss a few leaves, and we enjoy watching the butterflies.
Last autumn we found an orchard swallowtail chrysalis on our house near the lemon tree. If all went well it would overwinter like this and hatch out in warmer weather.
Spring came and it did not hatch, so I had a bad feeling it may have been dead. The weather warmed, and summer began, and it still didn't hatch. Not a great sign.
Then just before Christmas we had a nice surprise. A beautiful male orchard swallowtail butterfly had hatched out of the chrysalis and was drying his wings!
I am grateful that he wasn't dead. My kids got to see (but not touch) him, which they found very exciting as they had grown rather attached to the chrysalis. I'm really glad we got to see him after waiting for such a long time, there was a really high chance that even if everything went well he would have hatched out and left before we ever got to see him. I took a few photos, other than that we left him to do his thing.
After his wings were dry he flew away.
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| Butterfly next to his empty chrysalis |
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| Butterfly drying his wings |
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| Orchard swallowtail butterfly |
I wish you well little butterfly.
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