Old World swallowtail | |
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Upperside | |
Underside | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
Family: | Papilionidae |
Genus: | Papilio |
Species: | P. machaon |
Binomial name | |
Papilio machaon Linnaeus, 1758 |
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Synonyms | |
List
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External identifiers for Papilio (Papilio) machaon | |
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Encyclopedia of Life | 130891 |
ITIS | 777696 |
NCBI | 76193 |
Also found in: |
Papilio machaon, the Old World swallowtail, is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. The butterfly is also known as the common yellow swallowtail or simply the swallowtail (a common name applied to all members of the family, but this species is the 'original', first to go by the name). It is the type species of the genus Papilio.
Named for Machaon (ancient Greek: Μαχάων) a figure in Greek mythology. He was a son of Asclepius.
Papilio machaon was named by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae in 1758, alongside nearly 200 other species of butterfly. Later, Pierre André Latreille designated it as the type species of the genus Papilio.Papilio appalachiensis and Papilio xuthus are also of the same genus. The specific epithet machaon refers to Machaon, son of Asclepius in the works of Homer.
There are 37 recognized subspecies, that include:
Papilio machaon gorganus is strongly migratory in Europe and may be found in almost all habitats. In the UK, P. m. britannicus is an endemic subspecies, but occasionally individuals of the continental subspecies P. m. gorganus breed temporarily on the south coast. Subspecies P. m. britannicus differs from the continental subspecies in being more heavily marked in black. The Maltese Islands are home to another endemic subspecies, P. m. melitensis.