- Animals
- ›Arthropods
- ›Hexapods
- ›Insects
- ›Winged and Once-winged Insects
- ›Butterflies and Moths
- ›Butterflies
- ›Swallowtails and Parnassians
- ›Swallowtails
- ›Fluted Swallowtails
- ›Papilio
Papilio
Papilio is a genus in the swallowtail butterfly family, Papilionidae, as well as the only representative of the tribe Papilionini. The word papilio is Latin for butterfly.
It includes the common yellow swallowtail (Papilio machaon), which is widespread in the Northern Hemisphere and the type species of the genus, as well as a number of other well-known North American species such as the western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus). Familiar species elsewhere in the world include the Mormons (Papilio polytes, Papilio polymnestor, Papilio memnon, and Papilio deiphobus) in Asia, the orchard and Ulysses swallowtails in Australia (Papilio aegeus, Papilio ulysses, respectively) and the citrus swallowtail of Africa (Papilio demodocus).
14 branches of this group, most-observed first
Black Swallowtail
speciesPapilio polyxenes
Old World Swallowtail
speciesPapilio machaon
Anise Swallowtail
speciesPapilio zelicaon
Chinese Yellow Swallowtail
speciesPapilio xuthus
Japanese Common Swallowtail
speciesPapilio hippocrates
Baird's Swallowtail
speciesPapilio bairdii
Indra Swallowtail
speciesPapilio indra
Short-tailed Swallowtail
speciesPapilio brevicauda
Desert Swallowtail
speciesPapilio saharae
Corsican Swallowtail
speciesPapilio hospiton
Papilio everesti
speciesPapilio everesti
Ozark Swallowtail
speciesPapilio joanae
Kahli‘s Swallowtail
speciesPapilio kahli
Papilio benguetanus
speciesPapilio benguetanus
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
Jan Jonston — Naeukeurige beschryving van de natuur der viervoetige dieren (1660)
Jan Jonston · 1660 · p.367
The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands : containing two hundred a...
Catesby, Mark, bioloog, kunstenaar · 1743 · p.258
Ulyssis Aldrovandi ... De animalibus insectis libri septem
Aldrovandi, Ulisse · 1618 · p.110
The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise
Alfred Russel Wallace · 1869 · p.160
The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise
Alfred Russel Wallace · 1869 · p.159
Medical and Philosophical Garden
Joachim Camerarius · 1588 · p.358
Ulyssis Aldrovandi ... De animalibus insectis libri septem
Aldrovandi, Ulisse · 1618 · p.109
The Subterranean World Volume Two
Athanasius Kircher · 1678 · p.395
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Papilio in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 545183.