The beautiful Tailed Emperors are frequent summer visitors. They lay their eggs on our Kurrajongs and Illawarra Flame trees, growing into a spectacular and large caterpillar. Unfortunately every time we discovered one within reach this season we didn’t have cameras with us, and when we did have cameras the caterpillars were no-where to be seen. Woohoo … managed to find a late season caterpillar. Photos below.
This year the butterflies have been attracted to the flowering figs. At least two different Tailed Emperors were photographed, each with slight differences in their wing markings.
The Tailed Emperor butterfly is fairly large, much larger than the Common Brown butterflies they fed beside on the figs. They are usually fairly flighty, however the sweet nectar produced by the over-ripe figs seemed to have a pacifying effect on all the butterflies that fed there, and they were very easy to approach and photograph.
A number of these farily large, bright green eggs have been laid on out Illawarra Flame trees. Possibly Tailed Emperor caterpillar eggs?
Very young Tailed Emperor caterpillar on Illawarra Flame tree leaf. April 3, 2011.Young Tailed Emperor caterpillar feeding on our Illawarra Flame trees. March 29, 2011.Tailed Emperor caterpillar feeding on Brachychiton acerifolius or Illawarra Flame Tree. March 29, 2011.
Tailed Emperor butterfly feeding on over-ripe figs. A bush fly landed on its wings (click to enlarge) which it seemed to completely ignore.Tailed Emperor butterfly feeding on figs. Note the slight differences in the fore (top) wing markings between these first two images.Tailed Emperor butterfly, showing the inside colouration of it’s wings and back.
The Dainty or Dingy Swallowtail – Papilio anactus – is the most common and numerous swallowtail in this area. Anyone from Wagga to Albury and probably beyond who grow any citrus will find this butterfly and it’s caterpillars in their trees. The caterpillars can become so numerous they can totally strip a small citrus of all it’s leaves.
The Dainty or Dingy SwallowtailHunting for suitable egg laying sitesAlways ready to fly away at the first sign of danger
The butterfly is quite striking, with it’s black and white markings and red and blue spots on the margin of both hind wings. It is a very restless flyer when feeding and searching for egg laying sites, and is constantly flitting from one spot to the next.
Dainty Swallowtail egg on new grapefruit growth.
The eggs are laid on the fresh new growth of citrus – small, single lemon-yellow and round. The eggs hatch into ravenous black and orange caterpillars. The markings change as the caterpillar matures. When disturbed, they can arch up and extend a flexible, orange coloured forked gland called an osmeterium which can squirt a fluid with a mildly offensive odour of rotting citrus.
Young Dainty Swallowtail caterpillar.Disturbed caterpillar showing osmeterium.Mature caterpillars on a lemon tree.
Although the caterpillars are quite conspicuous, their chrysalis stage is so well camouflaged they are easy to miss. The caterpillars pupate in the trees upon which they have fed, matching the colour and markings on the chrysalis to blend in to the anchoring branch. I have seen them in various shades from green to brown and an exact match to the surrounding citrus branches.
Dainty Swallowtail chrysalis on a Hand of Buddha citrus.Same chrysalis from a different angle, blending in.Chrysalis from above - note the silk anchor threads.
It is standing room only on the over-ripe flowering figs!
We’ve already had two pickings of ripe fruit, made two batches of Fig Paste and Jam, and are not yet ready to deal with another, so we left the fruit on the trees.
Fig in flower
These figs open into a startling red “flower”, which as it ages becomes highly attractive to butterflies, bees and flies of all sorts. The butterflies become so affected by the fig juices that by the end of the day they can be easily approached and photographed.
Today, as well as the clouds of the Common Brown butterfly, a number of different types of bees and flies, a Tailed Emperor butterfly took advantage of a free feed. The Tailed Emperors lay eggs on our Kurrajongs, growing into a large and striking caterpillar, before turning into these beautiful, large butterflies.
