Iberian Scarce Swallowtail

• GeneralA large striped butterfly with tails on its wings; it soars for long spells along the ridges.
• It practises hilltopping: the males gather on summits and on the highest points of the ground, where they wait for females, behaviour that means it is often seen on cols and ridges.
• It is the sister species of the European scarce swallowtail, Iphiclides podalirius, from which it separated relatively recently and with which it hybridises in southern France.
• It is told apart from the scarce swallowtail of the rest of Europe, Iphiclides podalirius, by its almost white rather than yellowish ground colour; it was long considered a subspecies of it, and its separation as a species in its own right is still debated.
• It glides for long stretches without beating its wings, riding the currents along the hillsides — a very characteristic flight, recognisable from a distance.
• The tails on the hindwings, together with the blue and orange spots at their base, form a false head: the bird strikes there and the butterfly escapes losing only a scrap of wing.
• The caterpillar is green, flattened and slug-like, and eats the leaves of blackthorn, almond and other stone-fruit trees.
• It is one of the most common and most visible butterflies of the interior of the Iberian Peninsula in spring.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Sunny slopes with blackthorn and fruit trees

Size at birth

The caterpillar does not exceed 4 cm, the shortest of all the European species in the family; it is thick and stocky, green with dorsal markings

Sexual maturity

Two to three generations a year: two in mountain and inland areas and up to three in low-lying southern areas; the individuals of the later generations are larger and paler

Gestation / incubation

The caterpillars hatch within a few days, between one and four weeks depending on the temperature, and after 40-45 days they form the chrysalis beside the food plant; the last generation overwinters inside the chrysalis, fastened with silk threads to a thick stem

Litter / clutch size

The female lays one or two eggs at a time on the food plant, chiefly species of the genus Prunus (almond, peach, plum, blackthorn, cherry) and also Pyrus, Malus and Crataegus

Sources consulted: Tolman y Lewington, Butterflies of Britain and Europe · Wiemers et al., checklist de mariposas europeas · Asociación Zerynthia · Ficha de especie de Iphiclides feisthamelii (Natusfera/iNaturalist) · Waste Magazine · Sierra de Baza, ficha Iphiclides feisthamelii · fichas naturalistas ibericas · Ficha de especie de Iphiclides feisthamelii · Sierra de Baza · Guadarramistas

Best time: Adults on the wing from March or April until October or November depending on the climate, up to 2,000 m in altitude; often seen taking salts near watercourses and on thistle flowers