Swallowtail

Name: Swallowtail

Scientific name: Papilio machaon

Category: Minibeasts

Nature Stars: 90

What are nature stars?

About: Britain's largest butterfly, with a wingspan of up to 9cm. Adults fly between May and July when they can often be seen flying strongly over reedbeds or feeding on ragged robin or flowering thistles. They are restricted to reedbeds and nearby marshlands in the Broads. Very rarely, individuals from the Continent turn up on Downland in southern England. The foodplant is Milk Parsley.

How to identify: Unmistakeable. A large, black and creamy-yellow butterfly, with long 'tails'.

Where: Found only in marshland in the Norfolk Broads.

Natural Superpowers

• Predator: 10
• Agility: 70
• Rarity: 90
• Cute factor: 60
• Traveller: 50

Fantastic fact: The English population is a unique subspecies, found only here.

Photograph credit: Keith Warmington/www.warmies.co.uk