Whilst out in Dhahran Vinu Mathew found an African Lime Butterfly. The
species is not so common on the east coast of the Kingdom as it is on the west
coast so was a nice find. Vinu also managed to take some excellent photos of
the butterfly, something that os very difficult to do as they are almost always
on the move. The African Lime Butterfly is a common and widespread Swallowtail
Butterfly that gets its common name from its favoured host plant but unlike
most swallowtail butterflies, it does not have a prominent tail. It is also
known as the Common Lime Swallowtail, Lemon Butterfly, Lime Swallowtail or
Citrus Swallowtail. Apart from being tailless it has a wingspan 80–100 mm and
above, the background colour is black. A broad, irregular yellow band is found
on the wings above, which is broken in the case of the forewing and also has a
large number of irregular spots on the wing. The upper hindwing has a red
tornal spot with blue edging around it that can be seen on the second
photograph below. The Common Lime Swallowtail is perhaps the most widely
distributed swallowtail in the world and can be found in Oman, United Arab
Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar eastwards to Australia and some
Pacific Ocean Islands. The widespread range indicates the butterfly's tolerance
and adaptation to diverse habitats where it is found in savannahs, fallow land,
gardens, evergreen and semi-evergreen forests and shows a preference for stream
and riverbeds. I thank Vinu for allowing me to use his photos on my website two
of which are shown below.
