Top Butterfly Wings:

Papilio machaon, South British Colombia to New Mexico

The Old World Swallowtail butterfly has a reddish-orange and blue eyespot on the upper side of the hind wing near tail with black along the lower border on the lower edge of hind wing not overlapping the eyespot. It can been found in open hilltops, mountain meadows, subarctic, boreal, northern prairie habitats, tundra and badlands in North America, South Alaska, British Colombia and Quebec and is the only swallowtail with circumpolar range.

The swallowtail butterfly is found most easily found on the tops of hills or at the edges of cliffs where up to a dozen or more males can be seen fighting for a position of dominance. This is so that they can wait for females to wander past. Once females of the species are fertilized they lay eggs singly on the leaves of the host plant that the caterpillars will consume upon hatching from the egg. As adults the butterflies will feed on flower nectar.