Papilio anactus
1 Dainty Swallowtail at Kambah, ACT
Identify this sighting
| Papilio anactus | SuziBond | 3 Feb 2022 | |
| Papilio anactus | Amata | 3 Feb 2022 | |
| Unverified | HelenCross | 3 Feb 2022 |
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User's notes
Presumably drinking beside the creek, and weeing?!
2 comments
3 Feb 2022
Hi Helen, this fascinating behaviour is called mud-puddling, where the butterfly finds wet patches of soil and drinks the moisture in order to access nutrients or salts in the moisture. Impressive that you've also managed to capture the butterfly in the process of excreting the excess water obtained during the mud-puddling! Great shots.
3 Feb 2022
Thanks Suzi, At first I thought it must have been laying eggs but then I looked up where it does so, and it's not in sand!
Location information
- Maps Lions Youth Haven - Westwood Farm A.C.T.
- Places Kambah, ACT
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- HelenCross Recorded by
- 25mm to 50mm Animal size
Collections
- HelenCross Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr Papilio anactus Swallowtails (Papilionidae) Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Rhopalocera) Insects
Species information
- Papilio anactus Scientific name
- Dainty Swallowtail Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 870m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
Record quality
Quality score
6 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species