SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLIES — CLARK 385 



Quite different are the habits of the smallest swallowtails — curious 

 little creatures with largely transparent wings and very long tails 

 {Leptocircm, pi. 1, fig. 2) — that are found in southeastern Asia and 

 in the large Malayan Islands. According to Henry O. Forbes, these 

 queer little butterflies flit over water fluttering their tails, jerking up 

 and down just as dragonflies do when flicking the water with the tip 

 of their abdomens. They mimic the habits of the dragonflies and 

 are often to be found flying together with them. Wlien they settle 

 on the ground they are difficult to see, for their tails and wings are 

 constantly in vibratory motion, so that a mere haee, as it were, exists 

 where they are resting. 



Perhaps more curious still are a few swallowtails of medium size 

 that look much more like butterflies of other groups than they do like 

 swallowtails. These have an awkward, clumsy flight like that of 

 the butterflies they resemble. 



AU of the swallowtails are very fond of nectar and are therefore 

 familiar visitors to gardens, where in certain places multitudes dis- 

 port themselves about their favorite plants. When feeding on the 

 flowers some of the swallowtails rest quietly with their bodies hang- 

 ing vertically and the wings fully extended. This is the usual habit 

 of the giant [Papilio cresphontes, pi. 9, fig. 37) and the yellow 

 {Papilio glauGus^ pi. 8, fig. 30) swallowtails. Others, like the pars- 

 nip {Papilio polyxenes asterius, pi. 12, fig. 59) and the spice-bush 

 {Papilio troiVus, pi. 11, fig. 49) swallowtails keep their wings more 

 or less constantly in motion and the body horizontal or more or less 

 inclined, but very seldom vertical. If you watch carefully a swallow- 

 tail fluttering on a flower — a parsnip or a spice-bush swallowtail — 

 you will be surprised to see that only the fore wings are in motion ; 

 the hind wings are motionless and expanded, making with each other 

 an angle from a right angle to an angle half again as great. The 

 gorgeous ornithopteras when feeding, like the blue swallowtail {Pa- 

 pilio philenor^ pi. 11, figs. 53, 54), their commonest representative in 

 North America, always keep their wings in motion, and one long- 

 winged kind living in the Malayan region {Papilio hrookeana) moves 

 its wings so very fast as to suggest a hummingbird. 



All swallowtails fly only in the daytime, most of them only when 

 the sun is shining. However, a few are very early risers. Among 

 our native kinds the blue swallowtail {Papilio philenor, pi. 11, figs. 

 53, 54) is always the first to visit flowers in the morning and the 

 last to disappear at night. In small numbers and in indolent fash- 

 ion as if only half awake it begins to fly about shortly before sun- 

 rise, and a few are to be seen until nearly dark, competing with the 

 hawk moths for the nectar from the flowers. The blue swallowtail 

 is already feeding before the other swallowtails have begun the 

 process of awakening, which usually consists in resting on some con- 



