These large, very active butterflies are found throughout the world. These two species happen to have been photographed in Japan but I'm sure they will be familiar!
This is a Aosujiageha, or Blue Banded Swallowtail. It is one of the smaller local swallowtail butterflies, though that stil lmeans it's a fairly large butterfly, the wing span would be about 10cm I think?
A close up!
The large wings can make it seem like their flight is erractic and barely under control. However, they are quite agile and accurate fliers.
The second species is the Kiiroageha, or Yellow Swallowtail:
It looks quite at home amongst the flowers.
This individual is missing it's back right wing, likely due to an attack by a bird. Having large conspicuous wings serves to misdirect attacks, missing one of 4 wings didn't slow this butterfly down very much!
Here it's feeding on a blue flower:
Close up showing the proboscis, the long tube like mouth, in flight it is curled up much like a garden hose. Unfurled, it can probe deep into many different kinds of flowers for sugary nectar to power its flight.
Have a wonderful day!
Thank you for reading my post!