Whilst birding the Raydah Escarpment I found
plenty of African Lime Butterflies. The species is quite common in the summer
months in the southwest of the Kingdom, but much less common elsewhere in the
country. 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.
