Photo Friday- Remarkable

I had intended to have a couple of days break from insects and bugs , but when the photo friday topic turned out to be 'Remarkable' I couldn't resist posting these three photos of a Scarce Swallowtail, Iphiclides podalirius.

Until Monday afternoon my best swallowtail photos were very poor; blurred or distant or with very tattered wings. The only decent photo had been a swallowtail in flight over lavender.

However , this swallowtail was fairly accomodating -at least it didn't fly away as soon as i approached with a camera, though i did have to follow it through brambles and thick bushes to take the different photos [so i paid the price with a small sacrifice of blood].

This was a particularly nice swallowtail -as the huge wings are easily battered and of course they make a nice large target for birds to aim at.

The eye spots on butterfly wings are supposed to partly scare off predators by looking like other predator's eyes and also to be a distraction so that only part of the wing is lost , if the butterfly is attacked.

This butterfly has lost the tip of the bottom left tail.



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Iphiclides podalirius