The Macleay's Swallowtail (Graphium macleayanus) is a butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 belonging to the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Papilionidae. The species was named after Alexander Macleay

Alexander Macleay

Hon. Alexander Macleay MLC FLS FRS was a leading member of the Linnean Society and a fellow of the Royal Society.Macleay was born on Ross-shire, Scotland, eldest son of William Macleay, provost of Wick...

.

Taxonomy

Macleay's swallowtail was first described by William Elford Leach

William Elford Leach

William Elford Leach FRS was an English zoologist and marine biologist.Leach was born at Hoe Gate, Plymouth, the son of a solicitor. At the age of twelve he went to school in Exeter, studying anatomy and chemistry. By this time he was already collecting marine samples from Plymouth Sound and along...

 in 1814. Two subspecies are recorded in Australia, the nominate form, G. m. macleayanus and G. m. moggana, which was first described by Leonard Edgar Couchman in 1965. The name is synonymous with Papilio macleayanus.

Description

The caterpillar grows to a length of 4 cm. The pupa is green with thin yellow lines.

The adult female Macleay's swallowtail has a wingspan of 59mm, whilst the adult male has a wingspan of 53mm. The upside of the wings is green with white markings and black edges. The lower surface is a deeper green with black, brown and white markings. The lower wings are strongly tailed.

Distribution and habitat

The Macleay's swallowtail is one of the most widely distributed swallowtail butterflies in Australia. It is found in Eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 including the ACT

Australian Capital Territory

The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 and Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

. It is the only swallowtail found in Tasmania. The species has also been found on Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island, but not since 1893. The habitat of the species includes urban areas, forests, woodlands and heath.

Behaviour

The caterpillars are green, with small white dots all over the body and a humped thorax. They feed on the foliage of members in the Atherosperma

Atherosperma

Atherosperma moschatum, the Southern Sassafras or Blackheart Sassafras is an evergreen tree native to the cool temperate rainforests of Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales in Australia. It is common in the rainforests of Tasmania and Victoria, but more scattered and rare in the higher altitudes...

, Cinnamomum

Cinnamomum

Cinnamomum is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. The species of Cinnamomum have aromatic oils in their leaves and bark. The genus contains over 300 species, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of North America, Central America,...

, Cryptocarya

Cryptocarya

Cryptocarya is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. The genus includes more than 350 species, distributed through the Neotropic, Afrotropic, Indomalaya, and Australasia ecozones.-Overview:...

, Daphnandra

Daphnandra

Daphnandra is a genus of shrubs and trees in the family Atherospermataceae, or formerly Monimiaceae. The genus is endemic to Australia.There are six species, occurring in New South Wales and Queensland:...

, Doryphora

Doryphora

Doryphora is a genus of plant in the family Atherospermataceae, or formerly Monimiaceae. It contains four species, two endemic to Australia.-Overview:...

, Endiandra

Endiandra

Endiandra is a genus of approximately 100 species of plants, mainly trees in the laurel family Lauraceae. They have a broad distribution across South East Asia, Australia and into the western Pacific Ocean....

and Tasmannia

Tasmannia

Tasmannia is a genus of woody, evergreen flowering plants of the family Winteraceae. There are 40 species of Tasmannia native to Australia, New Guinea, Celebes, Borneo, and Philippines. The Winteraceae are magnoliids, and are associated with the humid Antarctic flora of the southern hemisphere...

genera.

The adults feed on nectar from flowers, including the genera Leptospermum

Leptospermum

Leptospermum is a genus of about 80-86 species of plants in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. Most species are endemic to Australia, with the greatest diversity in the south of the continent; but one species extends to New Zealand, another to Malaysia, and L. recurvum is endemic to Malaysia.They...

, Lantana

Lantana

Lantana is a genus of about 150 species of perennial flowering plants in the verbena family, Verbenaceae. They are native to tropical regions of the Americas and Africa but exist as an introduced species in numerous areas, especially in the Australian-Pacific region. The genus includes both...

and Buddleia. The flight period is from November to March.

External links

• List of host plants for Graphium macleayanus. Australian Biological Resources Study.