Common White-banded Swallowtail

Common White-banded Swallowtail

With the sponsorship of the Common White-banded Swallowtail (Papilio cynorta), we would like to thank Andrea Mährle for the photos in the "Our sponsors" picture gallery.

These representatives of the swallowtail family (Papilionidae) inhabit the tropical rainforests from Sierra Leone in the west to Kenya and Tanzania in the east and Angola in the south of the African continent.

The butterflies, whose black and white banding on the upper side of the wings is a typical feature of the males, reach a wingspan of up to 8.5 cm. Females of this species, on the other hand, are very variable in their colouring. It is assumed that they imitate the appearance of various species of the genus Acraea from the Nymphalidae family. As their models are protected against predators by toxic cyanoglycosides - compounds containing hydrocyanic acid - the Papilio cynorta females benefit from this mimicry, which has also earned the species the German trivial name "Nachahmer-Schwalbenschwanz" (imitator swallowtail).