Butterflies: Swallowtail

^{Three butterfly postings in one day? Well, yes, just trying to break this bloody cat monopoly. Cats kill butterflies for no good reason, did you know that? Not so cute now, are they?}

This is a posting about butterflies without a photo of a butterfly, a unique moment in the history of Steemit.

It is about the swallowtail (Papilio machaon), koninginnenpage in Dutch, and I have never seen one. Sounds like a boring post coming up, but bear with me.

They have become rare here in The Netherlands, but I do know they are still around, because I managed to get a photo of the caterpillar, which is impressive enough by itself to warrant a posting.

At about 5cm (2") in length, and brightly coloured, it is quite a thing to see:

^{Olympus Stylus 1s, 28mm, ISO100, f5.6, 1/80s}

This one is sitting on a carrot top, which they are wont to do.

The butterfly itself is also very pretty; fortunately, @adrianobalan posted photos of it a few days ago, so you can go there to have a look at it.

Thanks for watching!

Previous in series: Ringlet.