Scarce swallowtail

Scarce swallowtail
Iphiclides podalirius. Upperside
Underside
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Genus:	Iphiclides
Species:	I. podalirius
Binomial name
Iphiclides podalirius (Linnaeus, 1758)

The scarce swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) is a butterfly belonging to the family Papilionidae. It is also called the sail swallowtail or pear-tree swallowtail.

Subspecies include:

Iphiclides podalirius feisthamelii is sometimes treated as a valid species (Iphiclides feisthamelii).

Despite the common name ("scarce"), this species is quite common. The scarcity of UK migrants is responsible for the English common name. This species is widespread in the East Palearctic ecozone and in most of Europe with the exception of the northern parts. Its range extends northwards to Lower Lusatia and central Poland and eastwards across Asia Minor and Transcaucasia as far as the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India and western China. A few specimens of the scarce swallowtail have been reported from central Sweden and the UK but they were probably only strays and not migrants.

These swallowtail butterflies inhabit gardens, towns as well as the countryside, in fields and open woodlands. They are found in places with sloe thickets and particularly orchards. In the Alps they can be found up to altitudes of 2000 m., but usually they prefer foothills and lower levels.

The presence of Iphiclides podalirius in the floodplain of the Morava River in the Slovak Republic have been found to be a good indicator of relatively well preserved grassland habitats with forest-steppe vegetation, which have no cutting history.

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Wikipedia