Papilio anactus
3 Dainty Swallowtail at Acton, ACT
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| Papilio anactus | MichaelMulvaney | 7 Feb 2022 | |
| Papilio anactus | TimL | 7 Feb 2022 |
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User's notes
The butterfly was being constantly harassed by Brown paper nest wasps that had a nearby nest. One of the wasps can be seen in the background of the final image. The wasps were flying at the underside of the butterfly, which responded by flapping its wings, but didn't move away.
4 comments
7 Feb 2022
Looks like he may be on a native lime which is a species a female lays eggs on - so maybe he's waiting for a female to show - though with the wasps nearby not sure of the survival rate of any young
7 Feb 2022
Hi Tim, that's quite an interesting observation - perhaps the wasps were interested in the Dainty Swallowtail caterpillar rather than the adult?
7 Feb 2022
@MichaelMulvaney @SuziBond Hi Michael, Suzy. The native lime has many caterpillars of various stages of development as well as pupae and at least 3 sizeable Brown paper wasp nests. I believe the wasps were going for the butterfly and not the caterpillar due to the butterfly's proximity to one of the nests. There were quite a few small caterpillars around the three wasp nests which were being left alone, so I'm guessing the butterfly was the target, closely followed by me when I got too close to the nest to photograph the butterfly!
Location information
- Maps ANBG
- Places Acton, ACT
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- TimL Recorded by
- 25mm to 50mm Animal size
Collections
- TimL 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
7 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes